M23 rebels rout defectors in eastern Congo

The March 23 movement (M23) rebels have routed fighters loyal to renegade General Bosco Ntaganda and regained control of all of the group’s territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Saturday, sources in the United Nations and the M23 rebel group said that hundreds of Ntaganda men have fled into Rwanda or surrendered to UN peacekeepers after being defeated by the M23 rebels.

The fighting broke out on February 28 after M23 military chief Sultani Makenga sacked the group’s political leader, Jean-Marie Runiga, for his alleged links with Ntaganda, prompting fighters to turn their weapons on each other. Runiga, along with his many loyalists, joined the Ntaganda faction.

Ntaganda, known by the nom de guerre “Terminator” due to his brutal methods, has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2006 on charges of committing the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen and using them to participate actively in hostilities.

Runiga was among those who fled to Rwanda. “I came here because the situation has been getting worse on the ground in Congo. I preferred to save my life,” he stated. “For the moment, I am here to find asylum.”

Scores of other rebels, including senior officers, have turned themselves in to UN peacekeepers over the past few days, said a UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“It’s over for the Bosco and Runiga faction,” he added.

“We are victorious, we won the battle,” M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said.

“We’re sweeping the area and placing our soldiers at strategic points,” he added. “It is finished.”

He went on to say that M23 rebels captured the town of Kibumba, 30 kilometers north of Goma, early on Saturday.

The M23 spokesman also stated that Ntaganda and his approximately 200 fighters fled into the forest while hundreds of others fled into neighboring Rwanda and at least seven were killed.

Meanwhile, on Saturday Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende said, “We’re following the situation very closely. The only thing we want is for Ntaganda to be arrested.”

Several armed groups, including the M23 rebels, are active in the east of the DRC and fighting for control of the country’s vast mineral resources, such as gold, the main tin ore cassiterite, and coltan (columbite-tantalite), which is used to make many electronic devices, including cell phones.

The M23 rebels seized Goma on November 20, 2012 after UN peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city of one million people. M23 fighters withdrew from the city on December 1, 2012 under a ceasefire accord.

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.

Since early May 2012, nearly 3 million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.5 million have resettled in Congo, but more than 460,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.