Stop the war against civilians in Congo

Congolese Civilians once again under rebel attack. Civilians of Goma were forced to flee their homes as gun shots and bombs are thrown in the city as a sign from the rebels that they are taking over the Democratic Republic of Congo. The M23 revolt began as a mutiny by soldiers against low pay.

Rebels' spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama spoke to a crowd at a stadium in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday. The M23 rebels said they planned to take control of the entire DRC after they captured Goma on Tuesday while UN peacekeepers looked on. The UN Security Council has demanded that the rebels withdraw from Goma and disband.

Kazarama however promised a peaceful future by saying the following; "Our plan is to secure the people and their property," he told The Daily Telegraph, flanked by youthful insurgents carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles. "Today, the population can sleep well. Last night, we had a quiet night. We ask the people to come back to their homes because now it is peaceful." Any rebel guilty of theft, murder or rape would be punished, he promised.

Credit: JAMES AKENA/REUTER

Last night, however, a final report by UN experts charged with investigating the rebels made clear that neighbouring Rwanda was primarily responsible for commanding and supporting the M23 movement. Roger Meece, the UN's envoy to Congo, told the Security Council yesterday that the rebels had been carrying out "targeted summary executions" of their opponents during their advance.

Since April, the rebel March 23 Movement, or M23, has been fighting the Congolese government. The M23 group is made up of soldiers from a former rebel army that signed a peace deal with the government on March 23, 2009, and was integrated into Congo’s national army. But in spring 2012, hundreds of them mutinied, claiming that the government had failed to meet their demands under the 2009 agreement.

Lets not forget that, the Democratic Republic of Congo is as large as the United States east of the Mississippi and is home to vast expanses of pristine rain forest, rare animal species and highly valuable minerals and natural resources. Yet Congo is also one of the poorest, most chaotic nations on the planet, ruined by unrest that is estimated to have claimed millions of lives in the past 10 years.

In many parts of the country, law, order, electricity and medicine are virtually nonexistent. Mass rape has been an epidemic, a tactic practised both by government forces, rebels, and the militias that dominate vast stretches of the country.