On the doorstep of Goma – the positioning of the UN’s greatest peacekeeping mission on the earth – there are indicators of surrendered troopers and fierce battles.
As we walked on the highway in entrance of the United Nations’ fundamental base, we stepped round fatigues, rounds and helmets as soon as belonging to the Congolese military combating the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.
The rebels now control the strategic city of Goma after combating for the border submit with Rwanda. It sits south of the swathes of mineral-rich mining territory the rebels have been seizing by final yr.
Pic: Reuters
We see them packed on the again of vehicles nonetheless marked by the FARDC emblem of the Congolese military.
I ask one man watching from the aspect of the highway what he makes of this excessive shift.
“That is unhealthy!” he says to me discreetly on the aspect of the highway, with our automobile as cowl from the prying eyes of the junior M23 troopers.
“My household shouldn’t be good. I’m not good – we do not know what comes subsequent.”
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Watch as M23 rebels take over Goma in DRC
Small teams are assembly the rebels with cheers and clapping.
We can’t inform whether it is reduction from the Congolese state or a vital precaution for a lot of who don’t wish to depart their hometown on the cusp of a brand new administration.
However earlier than they’ll settle in and arrange a neighborhood authority, M23 have time to cease and humiliate their former enemy.
Not simply the Congolese troops, however the Romanian mercenaries combating alongside them.
Pic: Reuters
MONUSCO, the United Nations’s peacekeeping group within the DRC, brokered an evacuation convoy for the paid fighters to go to Rwanda with vehicles stuffed with Uruguayan peacekeeping troops watching as M23 led the handover by their newly-captured border.
Pic: AP
Because the Romanian males go by in a single file, they’re chastised by M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma who faucets them mockingly one after the other.
“Come on soldier!” he stated. “You have been combating for cash – we have been combating for our life!”
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Hospitals overwhelmed as rebels complete takeover of Goma
Inside the Congolese city overrun by rebels
I nook him as he flags the buses by – may you will have come this far with out Rwanda’s assist?
He tries to maintain busy, and after the fourth time I repeat the query, he yells into my face in French:
“We’re a Congolese military, we’re Congolese! We battle for a good and noble trigger – we’re Congolese. We aren’t helped by Rwanda!”
M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma gave a feverish denial that the rebels are backed by Rwanda
It can take greater than a feverish denial to undermine the extensively recognized assist of Rwanda for M23 – one which has been condemned on the highest ranges of the United Nations and senior diplomats from all over the world.
Because the “Welcome to Rwanda” signal will get nearer, the final Romanian mercenary limps throughout with a wounded leg flanked by a UN safety advisor and an Indian medic.
A surreal sight of a person heading house after combating a warfare abroad surrounded by Congolese households fleeing the warfare at house.
