UNITED NATIONS (AP) — High United Nations officers in Africa warned an emergency assembly of the U.N. Safety Council on Wednesday that the offensive of Rwanda-backed rebels in mineral-rich jap Congo is threatening peace within the wider area.
“It’s crucial that this council takes pressing and decisive steps to avert a wider regional warfare,” mentioned Bintou Keita, U.N. particular envoy for Congo.
The seizure of main cities in jap Congo by the M23 rebel group in current weeks and statements by key events present that “the chance of a regional conflagration is extra actual as we speak than ever earlier than,” mentioned Huang Xia, U.N. particular envoy for Africa’s Nice Lakes area, which incorporates Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
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France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere urged the council to rapidly undertake a draft decision circulated by his nation two weeks in the past that reaffirms assist for Congo’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, urges an finish to the M23 offensive and the withdrawal of Rwandan troops, and requires the pressing resumption of talks.
“The danger of a regional warfare is rising every day,” he mentioned.
The M23 is essentially the most outstanding of greater than 100 armed teams vying for management of jap Congo’s trillions of {dollars} in mineral wealth. The area is wealthy in gold and coltan, a key mineral utilized in shopper electronics like laptops and smartphones.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, in line with U.N. specialists, and at instances have vowed to march so far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away.
In a lightning three-week offensive, the M23 took management of eastern Congo’s main city Goma and seized the second largest metropolis, Bukavu, on Sunday.
Keita, who additionally heads the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, informed the Safety Council that since then, the M23 has stored advancing, seizing the city of Kamanyola on the intersection of three borders — Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
Congo’s International Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner demanded the Safety Council to order the rapid withdrawal of Rwandan troops.
“These forces have trampled on worldwide legislation, introduced dying and devastation and violated our sovereignty,” she mentioned.
Rwanda’s U.N. Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo mentioned “African management should drive the decision of this battle,” criticizing Congo’s president for searching for sanctions towards his nation from Western governments.
At this stage, the U.N. doesn’t know the M23 agenda, the intention of its backers or how far they’ll go and why, mentioned Huang, the Nice Lakes U.N. envoy.
“This case should cease earlier than we see the triggering of a widespread regional warfare, the implications of which might be devastating” and undermine efforts over the previous decade to carry stability to the central Africa area, Huang mentioned.
The U.N. Human Rights Council this month launched a commission that will investigate atrocities, together with allegations of rapes and killings akin to “abstract executions” by each side.
