Sawt Falasteen - DR Congo conflict advances as UN warns of regional escalation

M23 fighters and Rwandan troops seized the city of Goma last week and are now pushing into the neighbouring South Kivu province.

Thousands have died and huge numbers displaced as they have overtaken swathes of the mineral-rich region, routing DRC troops and their allies in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in eastern DRC.

In an urgent session requested by DRC itself, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Friday a resolution urging M23 fighters to withdraw immediately from occupied areas, and triggering an investigation.

- Worse to come -

During the Human Rights Council meeting UN rights chief Volker Turk warned "the risk of violence escalating throughout the sub-region has never been higher".

"If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country's borders," he added.

Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on January 26, and that final tolls would likely be much higher.

He also said his team is "currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery".

Also on Friday, a Swiss NGO said three local staff were killed in the area this week.

Congolese forces were bracing Friday for an assault on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying its troops, according to security, humanitarian and local sources.

Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where residents were also on edge.

"We see some people starting to flee," resident Aganze Byamungu told AFP.

A local who spoke on condition of anonymity said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes.

"The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It's total chaos," they added.

- 'Go to Kinshasa' -

In Goma, where the M23 has already installed its own mayor and authorities, the group convened tens of thousands of people on Thursday for a public meeting of the River Congo Alliance, a political-military coalition that includes the M23.

The head of the alliance, Corneille Nangaa, told the crowd that the group wants to "liberate all of the Congo".

Young people at the meeting in the city's packed stadium chanted "Go to Kinshasa!", the DRC's capital on the other side of the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.

The DRC issued an international arrest warrant for Nangaa on Wednesday.

Since the M23 resurfaced in late 2021, the DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.

The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

Burundi has sent an additional battalion to support the Congolese army, a security source told AFP on Friday.

Previous peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to attend a summit in Tanzania on Saturday as regional powers try to defuse the crisis.

The latest peace summit brings together the eight-country East African Community and 16-member South African Development Community.

It was set to start with a ministerial meeting on Friday, before the arrival of Kagame, Tshisekedi and other regional leaders on Saturday.

"As we seek a joint resolution following numerous earlier initiatives, we need to understand that insecurity and conflicts in one region can escalate and destabilise the whole world," Kenyan foreign secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is in Tanzania for the meeting, said in statement.

A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda has "de facto" control over the M23, alongside some 4,000 of its own troops in the conflict zone.

Rwanda denies direct involvement and accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

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G.AbuGhazaleh--SF-PST