Congo civil war: Army recaptures towns seized by rebel forces months ago

Several towns that fell to armed groups in eastern Congo’s North Kivu and South Kivu provinces have been recaptured by government forces, a Congolese army spokesman said, even as the rebels have made advances in other areas amid intensified fighting in the conflict-battered region.

Eastern Congo has been in conflict for decades with more than 100 armed groups, most of which are vying for territory in the vast and mineral-rich region near the border with Rwanda. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including 100,000 who have fled their homes this year.

The Congolese army said some of the recovered towns have been occupied by rebels for months, including Ngungu, a key town in the Masisi territory that is near the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma. Some Masisi villages, however, remain under the control of rebels, including its center known as the Masisi Center.

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“They (the rebels) have seen their adventure come to a halt by the FARDC (Congolese security forces),” Guillaume Ndjike Kaiko, army spokesman in North Kivu, told reporters, listing other recovered towns as Lumbishi, Ruzirantaka, Kamatale, Bitagata and Kabingo.

“All over there, they have been pushed back,” Kaiko said Sunday, attributing the victories to a joint military operation led by the commanders of the two provinces.

The news of the recovered towns brought mixed feelings among villages that had fled the areas. They worried for their safety as they celebrated their return home.

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“We are in Ngungu … but we continue to suffer because the security is not well established,” said Nsabimana Alexis, a resident. “People continue to die, we just buried a person 30 minutes ago,” he said.

Frequent clashes between the Congolese forces and the rebels have made dozens of villages inaccessible and out of the reach of aid. The most dominant rebel group in the region has been the M23 rebel group, which the Congolese government and United Nations experts say is being backed by neighboring Rwanda. Rwanda denies this.

In Masisi, displaced camps and aid facilities are being overstretched as more people try to seek refuge from the violence, French charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has said.

“We are doing our best to respond to this situation. But the severe lack of humanitarian responders in the area is making things difficult,” said Romain Briey, the MSF coordinator in Masisi.