Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital

Update Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the rebel group Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) including M23, speaks during an interview with Associated Press in Goma, DR Congo, on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo)
Short Url
Updated 31 January 2025
Follow

Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital

Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital
  • Group’s capture of most of Goma earlier in the week was a dramatic escalation in a region
  • The crisis has rattled the continent and international observers

GOMA, DR Congo: The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 moved south as it closed in on a key military airport in DR Congo on Friday, a day after pledging to take the capital Kinshasa and as international criticism mounted.

The group’s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier in the week was a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen decades of conflict involving multiple armed groups.

Rwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but is accused of seeking to profit from the region’s reserves of minerals used in global electronics.

The crisis has rattled the continent and international observers, with a southern African regional bloc holding an emergency summit in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare on Friday.

M23 fighters are now moving south.

Local sources said on Thursday that fighting was concentrated some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the city of Kavumu.




DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi speaks during the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City on September 25, 2024. (AFP)

The city has a strategic military airfield and is where the Congolese army has laid down its defensive line just 40 km north of South Kivu’s provincial capital Bukavu.

The United Nations warned it was concerned by “credible reports that the M23 is moving rapidly toward the city of Bukavu.”

The second biggest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after Goma, Bukavu has a population believed to be around two million.

The Congolese army has yet to comment on the latest M23 advances but President Felix Tshisekedi said earlier this week that a “vigorous” military response was under way.

Information about the fast-moving offensive has remained unclear, but so far M23 fighters have met limited resistance from the ill-equipped and poorly paid Congolese forces.

In Goma, residents have emerged to count the dead and search for food, as hospitals struggled to cope with the wounded.

“We do not want to live under the thumb of these people,” one person, who asked not to be named, said.

The United Nations, United States, European Union, China, Britain, France and mediator Angola have all called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces.

Britain said Thursday it was considering reviewing aid to Rwanda.

Rwanda has hit back at the criticism, with government spokesperson Yolande Makolo saying the UK did not deliver “a direct warning” about aid.

“The international community has its fair share of the blame in the current situation,” she posted on X.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame also strongly rejected accusations that Kigali is supporting the armed group, saying: “M23 are not Rwandans — they are Congolese.”

On Friday, the 16-nation Southern African Development Community will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the “worrying situation.”

Kagame and Angolan President Joao Lourenco, the African Union-appointed mediator between Kigali and Kinshasa on the conflict, will not attend.

The meeting follows soaring tensions between Kagame and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after the deaths of 13 South African soldiers in DRC’s east.

“We are ready to defend ourselves if we are attacked by a coalition including South African forces,” Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told South African public broadcaster SABC late Thursday.

The M23 and Rwandan troops entered Goma on Sunday. During days of intense clashes that killed more than 100 people, the group seized control over much of the city as many Congolese soldiers surrendered or fled.




M23 rebels escort government soldiers and police who surrendered to an undisclosed location in Goma, DR Congo, on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP)

“We are in Goma and we will not leave,” Corneille Nangaa, head of a coalition of groups including the M23, said on Thursday.

“We will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa,” he added.

The offensive has heightened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, the UN said.

Africa’s health agency warned that the “unnecessary war” in eastern DRC — a hotspot for infectious diseases including mpox — raised the risk of pandemic.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of waging an offensive to profit from the region’s mineral wealth.

A report by UN experts in July supported the claims, finding that Rwanda has thousands of troops in eastern DRC — and holds “de facto control” over the M23.

Rwanda has denied the accusations.


’Strong G7 unity’ on Ukraine in talks: host Canada

Updated 2 sec ago
Follow

’Strong G7 unity’ on Ukraine in talks: host Canada

’Strong G7 unity’ on Ukraine in talks: host Canada
“We were able to find strong G7 unity on a variety of issues … in particular is the one linked to Ukraine,” Joly said

CHARLEVOIX, Canada: Group of Seven foreign ministers reached a unified statement backing US-led calls for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, host Canada said Friday, despite friction with President Donald Trump.
“I can say that through our long conversations, we were able to find strong G7 unity on a variety of issues that were discussed and one that I would like to highlight in particular is the one linked to Ukraine,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters on the last day of the talks in Quebec.

UK police extend detention of North Sea crash captain

UK police extend detention of North Sea crash captain
Updated 14 March 2025
Follow

UK police extend detention of North Sea crash captain

UK police extend detention of North Sea crash captain
  • Police were granted two extensions on Wednesday and Thursday
  • Police cited the location of both vessels at sea as one of the complications facing the probe

LONDON: UK police Friday again extended the detention of the captain of a cargo ship which struck a tanker in the North Sea, citing the “complexities” of the case.
The Russian captain was arrested Monday on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after his ship, the Solong, slammed into the tanker anchored off the coast of Hull in northeastern England, setting both ships ablaze and leaving one sailor presumed dead.
Police were granted two extensions on Wednesday and Thursday to allow more time to question the 59-year-old captain due to “the complexities of the incident,” the local Humberside police force said in a statement.


Police cited the location of both vessels at sea as one of the complications facing the probe, with the ships on fire for several days after the incident, requiring a massive firefighting response.
While all crew onboard the jet fuel-laden tanker, the US-flagged Stena Immaculate, were safely rescued, one sailor from the Portuguese-flagged Solong remains missing and presumed dead.
Although the government has ruled out foul play, investigators are still determining the causes of the crash, in which the Solong never deviated from its course and slammed into the Stena at 16 knots an hour.
Pockets of fire were still being reported on the deck of the Solong on Thursday evening, according to the UK Coast Guard.
“Extensive lines of enquiry are continuing,” police said.
Salvage teams boarded the vessels on Thursday to carry out initial damage assessments.


UN migration agency laying off around 20 percent of HQ staff amid US aid cuts: sources

UN migration agency laying off around 20 percent of HQ staff amid US aid cuts: sources
Updated 14 March 2025
Follow

UN migration agency laying off around 20 percent of HQ staff amid US aid cuts: sources

UN migration agency laying off around 20 percent of HQ staff amid US aid cuts: sources
  • Fresh cuts at IOM are expected to impact at least 20 percent

GENEVA: The UN migration agency, which has been hit hard by US foreign aid cuts, has launched more mass layoffs, impacting around a fifth of staff at its Geneva headquarters, employees said Friday.
Fresh cuts at the International Organization for Migration are expected to impact at least 20 percent of the more than 1,000 current headquarters staff, according to several sources familiar with the situation.


US hails ‘historic peace treaty’ between Armenia, Azerbaijan

US hails ‘historic peace treaty’ between Armenia, Azerbaijan
Updated 14 March 2025
Follow

US hails ‘historic peace treaty’ between Armenia, Azerbaijan

US hails ‘historic peace treaty’ between Armenia, Azerbaijan
  • Azerbaijan and Armenia said Thursday that they had wrapped up talks aimed at resolving the Caucasus neighbors’ decades-long conflict

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday hailed a “historic peace treaty” finalized by Armenia and Azerbaijan and called on both sides to follow through.
“This is an opportunity for both countries to turn the page on a decades old conflict,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“Now is the time to commit to peace, sign and ratify the treaty, and usher in a new era of prosperity for the people of the South Caucasus,” he added.
Azerbaijan and Armenia said Thursday that they had wrapped up talks aimed at resolving the Caucasus neighbors’ decades-long conflict, with both sides agreeing on the text of a possible treaty.
A deal to normalize ties would be a major breakthrough in a region where Russia, the European Union, the United States and Turkiye all jostle for influence.


Indians welcome spring with Holi, the world’s most colorful festival

Indians welcome spring with Holi, the world’s most colorful festival
Updated 14 March 2025
Follow

Indians welcome spring with Holi, the world’s most colorful festival

Indians welcome spring with Holi, the world’s most colorful festival
  • One of India’s biggest festivals, it is also among major homecoming seasons
  • People visit, play music, dance, and pelt each other with powdered pigments

NEW DELHI: Millions of Indians celebrated on Friday the festival of colors, Holi, which marks the end of winter.

Symbolizing the triumph of good over evil, Holi is observed on the last full moon in the lunar month of Phalguna with bonfires, sweets, dancing to traditional music, and splashing others with colorful powders.

One of India’s biggest festivals, it is also among the major homecoming seasons, when people head to their native towns to reunite with family members.

“We start our morning by visiting other people’s houses and we meet people who we have not interacted with for a year. We apply colors on each other and then we sit together and eat. We play music and dance,” said Dr. Ashok Kumar Sharma, lecturer at Kurukshetra University in the northern state of Haryana.

“Holi is a festival to connect with the people and it’s a time when we embrace each other forgetting our differences and disputes.”

Holi derives its name from Holika, the demon sister of the evil King Hiranyakashipu in Indian mythology, who tried to forbid his son from worshiping the Hindu deity Vishnu and wanted to kill him with her help.

Hiranyakashipu ordered the two of them to sit on a burning pyre, lying to the son that his aunt, who was immune to fire, would protect him. But when the flames struck, it was Holika who burnt to death and the demon king’s son survived with the help of Vishnu.

The night before Holi, Hindus burn pyres to symbolize the death of Holika and the triumph of good over evil. As the next day arrives, they pelt each other with powdered pigments.

“This is a festival to enjoy without getting into formal dress and formal manner. We have nice food and also reflect how we should live together ... We connect with the people with (whom we) have fought. We try to connect by forgetting personal differences,” Ravi Kumar, an entrepreneur, told Arab News.

As president of a housing society in Vikaspuri, West Delhi, he made arrangements for celebrations in his area.

“This is a community festival where in our housing colony we seek collective opinion what they want to eat on this special occasion ... We have made arrangements for cooking special mutton and rajma (red kidney beans in tomato gravy) and people will contribute to that and all of them will enjoy them,” Kumar said.

“We also made a special arrangement for a DJ on the grounds of the housing society. People will play colors and dance and enjoy themselves.”

Those who enjoy Holi the most are children, as they can get away with various types of mischief and enjoy a day off from school.

“For kids, I think this is one of the most fun festivals in the year. Kids use a lot of watercolors and it’s the one time of the year they can spray colors on total strangers and get away with it. So, for kids this means having a lot of sweets, pranks and total liberty,” said Simran Sodhi, a media worker in Delhi.

For her, it was mainly a time for family and friends. “And a time to celebrate the bonds we have created in our lives,” she told Arab News.

“I feel it’s the time of the year when we welcome the spring season, and for me it means life continuing its cycle of colors and bonds.”