ISHASHA: Congo’s new M23 rebel group have opened a new front north of their current stronghold in the country’s eastern city of Rutshuru, said a rebel spokesman.

The group of about 1,000 fighters created after several officers from the Congolese army defected in April and May, has been fighting the Congo army south of its base in Rutshuru for two months. It is now spreading its control toward Lake Edward. The rebels took the small town of Nyamilima on Monday and now say they are planning to attack Ishasha, a trading post on the border with Uganda. The M23 said that they are attacking to protect the local population from other rebel groups such as the Mai Mai and the FDLR. “The population asked us to come because they were suffering at the hand of the Mai Mai defense groups and the FDLR,” said Col. Vianney Kazarama. “If we need to go further than Nyamilima and Ishasha, we will.”

The FDLR is a Hutu armed group that was created after the 1994 Rwandan genocide when Hutu militias that took part in the killing left the country and regrouped in Congo. For the past 18 years the Hutu militia have operated in eastern Congo.

The M23, made up principally of Tutsis, is determined to battle the FDLR and Mai Mai, said spokesman Vianney Kazarama.

Although the M23 controls the town of Nyamilima, they do not completely control the road to the north, where Mai Mai defense groups and FDLR roam the area and stop cars.

Kazarama said the M23 is also trying to forge an alliance with several of the Mai Mai defense groups to bring “discipline” to the combatants and to fight the FDLR and the government together. But Mai Mai groups are reluctant to ally with an armed group they perceive as foreign because of its ties with Rwanda.