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M23 rebels patrol in Rangira, near Rutshuru, in October 2012/AFP

Africa

UN helicopters fire on advancing DR Congo rebels

— ‘M23 well-equipped and very well-supplied’ —

The UN Security Council held an emergency session on the crisis on Saturday, demanding end to the M23 advance and “that any and all outside support and supply of equipment to the M23 cease immediately”.

It also vowed fresh sanctions against M23 leaders and those who help it breach UN sanctions and an arms embargo.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to Rwandan President Paul Kagame to “use his influence on M23,” said UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

Ladsous said the United Nations could not confirm whether Rwanda was helping the new rebel offensive but told reporters that M23 “attacking forces are well-equipped and very well-supplied”.

Last week both the UN and the United States announced sanctions on M23 leader Sultani Makenga, accusing his forces of carrying atrocities against civilians.

The DR Congo army and the M23 each blamed the other for the latest violence, but the UN mission in DC Congo, MONUSCO, said the rebels had launched an offensive with heavy weapons early Saturday.

The fighting is the most serious since July, when UN helicopters last went into action against the M23.

The rebels are former fighters in the Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

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The CNDP was integrated into the military under a 2009 peace agreement, but the mutineers say they rebelled because the terms of the deal were never fully implemented.

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