M23 rebels seize key town of Rubaya, insist on ‘stopping genocide’

Rubaya, a strategic town in eastern DR Congo was seized by the M23-led rebel alliance on Tuesday, April 30, according to media reports. Rebel spokesperson Lt Col Willy Ngoma said Rubaya fell into the hands of rebel fighters following clashes with government troops.

In February, the rebels accused a government-led coalition of « slaughtering the civilian population” in North Kivu Province and said they were « obliged” to stop what they said was an ongoing genocide.

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Lately, Ngoma told journalists that: « We never started the hostilities. The government coalition came to attack our positions. And we had to repulse them; we had to stop the genocide, especially in the town of Rubaya. We are not really concerned by the minerals there. All we care about is stopping the genocide; protecting people, defending human life! That is what mainly concerns us and gives us great joy! For us, our fight is for saving people’s lives and not minerals!

DR Congo is a big producer of coltan, a highly demanded mineral which mainly comes from mines around Rubaya in North Kivu Province. Coltan is used primarily for the production of tantalum capacitors used in mobile phones and many electronic devices.

« We are a force of the people. We have stopped the genocide [that was taking place there] because of the activities there of Imbonerakure, FDLR, Mai-mai and others including FARDC and the Burundian army who planned and have already executed the killings of people based on their ethnicity! And this we had to stop, as quickly as possible!”

Asked what the rebels’ plan was, Ngoma indicated that they intend to « push the enemy” as far away as possible and fully guarantee the security of human life.

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Last December, the newly created Congo River Alliance (AFC) comprising nine Congolese rebel groups including the M23 asked DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi to stop the killings of civilians in North Kivu Province where a government-led coalition was fighting the M23 rebel group. Corneille Nangaa, the rebel alliance coordinator and former electoral commission president, accused the Congolese army of indiscriminate bombings in populated areas in the east of the country.

Last month, former South African President Thabo Mbeki said that DR Congo should disarm genocidal forces who fled to Congolese territory after carrying out the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in line with the Sun City Agreement signed between Kigali and Kinshasa in April 2003.

The former South African leader said implementation of the Sun City Agreement would bring a political solution to the instability in eastern DR Congo as the current framework does not work.