The conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo risks escalating into a broader regional war, Burundi’s president said Saturday, as Africa’s top health agency warned the fighting could spark new outbreaks of serious diseases.The Rwanda-backed armed group M23 has vowed to march on the capital Kinshasa after capturing eastern DRC’s biggest city of Goma earlier this week.The lightning offensive is the latest to scar the mineral-rich region, which has seen relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups kill an estimated six million people over three decades.The fall of Goma has rattled the continent, prompting international condemnation and fears of a humanitarian crisis.”If it continues like this, war risks becoming widespread in the region,” Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye said.”It is not only Burundi, it is Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya — it is the whole region, it is a threat,” he said in an official video posted to YouTube.His comments echoed similar remarks by UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday.Illustrating the complicated nature of the conflict, Burundi itself has at least 10,000 soldiers in the east of the DRC, a Burundian military source told AFP.Rwanda accused Burundian troops of actively engaging in fighting against the M23.Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on X that Burundian forces had been “more engaged in open fighting against the M23″ since October 2023.Many of the Burundian troops, who are there under a previous military agreement with Kinshasa, have been redeployed to the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu.Locals at the market there expressed their concerns Saturday.”The M23 says that after having taken Goma, they are coming here to our home in South Kivu,” said Henriette Butuna, a seller at Bukavu market. “That’s why we are scared, because we don’t know either the day or the hour” they could arrive.”We are buying to stock up at home,” said Josee Zabibu, one customer.Uganda’s army meanwhile said Friday it would adopt a “forward defensive posture” in eastern DRC.A UN expert report last July said Rwanda had around 4,000 troops in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo, accusing Kigali of having “de facto” control over the M23.Rwanda denies any military involvement, maintaining its goal in eastern DRC is to eradicate a Hutu-led armed group formed in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.But the DRC accuses Rwanda of seeking to profit from the region’s rare minerals, which are used in technology such as smartphones across the world — a claim Kigali also denies.- ‘Pandemics’ warning -Since M23 and Rwandan troops entered North Kivu province’s capital Goma last Sunday, at least 700 people have been killed and another 2,800 wounded in intense clashes, says the United Nations.The M23 have outmatched the ill-equipped and poorly paid Congolese forces, who have resorted to hastily recruiting volunteers to fight back.In recent days, M23 fighters have advanced into the neighbouring South Kivu province towards the town of Kavumu and its strategic military airport. This is where the Congolese forces have set their main line of defence.The fighting in Goma has sparked a “full-scale public health emergency”, warned the African Union’s public health agency.Even before the latest violence, “extreme conditions, combined with insecurity and mass displacement have fuelled the mutation of the mpox virus,” said Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya.”If decisive action is not taken, it will not be bullets alone that claim lives -– it will be the unchecked spread of major outbreaks and potential pandemics,” Kaseya added.The deadly clade 1b variant of mpox, which has been recorded in countries around the world in recent months, first emerged in South Kivu in 2023.- Markets open in Goma -While the fighting has largely stopped in Goma, AFP reporters said there were still serious shortages of cash and fuel. Congo’s authorities have been reluctant to prioritise supplying the city, which is largely under M23’s control.In the areas it has seized, the armed group has started setting up a parallel administration.Markets opened in central Goma on Saturday, the traders setting up stalls and women carrying bundles of cassava leaves on their shoulders.Multiple diplomatic efforts have emerged aiming to prevent the crisis from escalating.On Friday, southern African leaders pledged “unwavering” support to the DRC after holding an emergency summit in Zimbabwe.African Union chair Moussa Faki Mahamat welcomed the summit’s call for a joint summit of southern African bloc SADC and the eight-country East African Community (EAC).In a region already home to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people, the latest fighting has forced another 500,000 people to flee their homes, said the UN, which has also reported summary executions carried out by the M23 fighters and rapes by Congolese troops.In Paris, some 1,800 members of the Congolese diaspora marched to protest the international community’s lack of support for their beleaguered country.They carried Congolese flags and banners calling for an end to the war or saying “Our resources, our right”, and while their ire was most directly focused on Rwanda, many said they felt abandoned by France and Belgium.burs-gv/jj
Sat, 01 Feb 2025 20:33:35 GMT
