Rare countries minerals critical for manufacturing smartphones. Lucrative trade and dizziness of weapons. Lives of millions of people. Everyone is now under control of the M23 militia and its powerful supporter, Rwanda.
M23 reigns a huge territory in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a home of abundant mines and other natural resources. In the Gom’s capitalOn the border with Rwanda, the M23 soldiers are now patrolling through the streets, and officials appointed M23 rule the city. Congo is a big but unreasonable army did not slow down the progress of the group, nor Conviction by the United Nations Security Council.
After months of fighting, the Congo and Rwanda leaders talked in Qatar this week and called for a direct interruption of fire. M23 refused to comment. Wednesday, despite calls to interrupt the fire of your patron saint, Rwanda, The group entered WalikaleA strategic city at the intersection of four provinces in Congo, in the heart of the territory in which there are a home of many gold mines.
Last month, the New York Times traveled to Goma for days after his capture.
M23, formerly Ragtag militia, now acts like a ruling entity in whistles, collections of Coltan and gold and strategic border crossings. Her immigration officers stamped their passports, and in a city still revived by deadly struggles, his leaders invited young people to join his army so they could “release the Congo”.
The group vowed to march on the capital of Kinshas, Kong. This is the M23 and Rwanda threat of the Sovereigament of the Congo, the largest country in Subsaharian Africa, according to territory, with more than 100 million people, where millions of people have died in the last three decades in endless wars.
A powerful armed group
M23 – named after March 23, 2009. Experts say the group is increasingly strong and more sophisticated.
“I dealt with the houtis in the Yemeni and rebel groups in the Central African Republic, but this is all I saw,” said Vivian van de Perre, Deputy Chief of the UN Peace Force, based in the crowd, said about the military capabilities and political ambitions of M23.
The political leader of the M23 is Corneille Nanga, a former head of the Congo Election Commission. He claims that the group can provide justice and safety for the long population.
“Problems from Congo arise from a lack of state powers,” Mr. Nanga said in a recent interview with Times in Gom. “Our goal is to renew the state.”
Mr. Nangaa was sitting in the lush garden of a former governor’s house on the coast of Lake Kivo, in the mid-1950s, Mr. Nanga, sitting in the Congolian flag behind him. Days earlier, the bodies of the people who killed his fighters have escaped On the lake.
In areas seized over the past year, the M23 has performed forcibly employment, including children, extrajudicial murders and sexual violence, according to UN researchers.
Mr. Nangaa claimed that “he would get rid of corruption and disorder.” According to the United StatesWhat had twice has sanctioned him, he monitored more than $ 100 million when he ran the Congo Election Commission and oversee the election of President Felix Tshiseeked.
2023, Mr. Nangaa turned out with the Government of Tshiseeked and created a coalition of rebel groups dedicated to the overthrow of his former allies. These include M23, the military hand of the coalition in the Eastern Congo.
In early February, he promised that tens of thousands of people would gather at the Gom stadium that justice, security and development would soon prevail.
“We are free, we have safety,” said Serge Abeli, 25 and unemployed, as he left the stadium. “Now new leaders can get rid of unemployment and living costs.”
But Mr. Nanga did not mention one thing that Congo longed for.
“We just want peace,” said Célestin Selemani, 29, and also unemployed, on Goma Street in the recent morning. “I grew up with war and got tired of it.”
Minerals that are related to Rwanda
Conflict He has his 1994 genocide roots from 1994which poured over the border into the Congo.
Like the Rwande leaders, M23 is mostly made up of people from the Tutsi ethnic group, who were targeted in the genocide. She claimed that it was in Eastern Congo to protect her colleagues of Tutsis from persecution. But according to United Nations reportM23 actually plans “Territorial expansion and long -term interest and exploitation of the conquered territories.”
And from the beginning of the year, some armed groups that mainly consist of ethnic Hutus have joined the M23, according to experts, showing the complaint of the group outside Tutsis.
Rubaya Rubaya, northeast of Goma, has one of the world’s largest Coltan scales – a mineral containing the element of “Rare country” Tantalum, used in smartphones, knee replacements and explosive devices. Looking from the sky, the mine looks like a giant shovel has bordered the earth with thousands of tiny holes and stripes to pull her body.
M23 collects at least $ 800 000 USD monthly tax from the production of Coltan, according to UN expertswho estimated that at least 150 tonnes of minerals were falsely expanded in Rwanda.
(Mr. Nangaa called an estimate of $ 800,000 “jokes.”)
The United Nations is called the M23 Proxy Army for Rwanda, with units directed by Rwanda soldiers and equipped with a weapon delivered by the Rwande Army – anti -tank rockets, sophisticated automatic rifles and Spoofing devices, among others.
President Paul Kagama of Rwanda denies the support of the group, but thousands of Ruand’s troops present in the crowd and across the Eastern Congo leave little doubt, according to a dozen intelligence analysts, diplomats, researchers and humanitarian workers who communicate with a group or study it.
Mr. Nanga had forgiven the presence of Rwanda’s troops in Eastern Congo during conversation with The Times, claiming that the problems of Congo threatened other countries.
“If we are neighbors and your children throw stones at me over the fence, I will tell you to ask your children to stop throwing stones at me,” he said. “If you don’t manage them, I’ll deal with it myself.”
M23 Rule of iron
It remains unclear whether Mr. Nanga will actually march on Kinshas. Analysts say that the more realistic target could be more effective control of the Eastern Congo, areas of approximately the size of Greece or Louisiane.
“The more territories they take, the more negotiating powers,” said Stephanie Wolters, a Congo expert at the South African Institute for International Affairs.
M23 imposed a strict public order on the newly conquered territories, but his control remained fragile. Last month, an attack on the M23 rally attended by Mr. Nanga in the city of Bukava killed at least 11 people and injured them more. No group took responsibility for the attack.
M23 also used brutal methods, according to residents, civil society activists and Human rights defenders.
The artist was shot on the street while shooting a video clip for song In which he accused the M23 of invasion, robbery and sexual violence, according to an eyewitness and activist who knew him. M23 denied involvement.
The M23 also refused to reopen Goma airport, depriving groups to help their main life line to the city, which until recently hosted more than a million displaced people.
Instead, shortly after Goma caught, the M23 ordered the displaced people to be prone to the city and around it to return to their homes, claiming that the territories under control of the M23 are now safe. Humanitarian workers warned that this could create another wave of displacement.
Pascaline Furah, a 25-year-old mother of a four-year-old who lived in a camp on the outskirts of Goma and expected her fifth child, said she couldn’t return home near Rubaya for recent fights there.
Despite the unstable security situation, the M23 expelled nearly 700,000 people from the camp, according to the UN data. The tens of thousands of white tents who fought for the Goma hill, and each removed a family like Mrs. Furah, was dismantled in just a few days.
