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Trucks full of M23 rebels drive towards Sake in eastern DR Congo on November 30, 2012/AFP

Africa

DR Congo army readies for assault on rebel stronghold

Overnight Sunday, the M23 accused the government of readying “troops and tanks to open a new military front in Mabenga”, a town some 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Goma.

Western military sources confirmed tanks had been recently deployed near Mabenga, a strategic town commanding a key crossroads.

The military offensive also came amid fresh UN accusations made last week that Rwanda – a temporary Security Council member – has been actively backing the rebels.

On Thursday, the UN said it had “consistent and credible reports” of Rwandan troops entering DR Congo to support the rebels, but Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo scotched the reports in comments made on Twitter.

“Rwandan troops are not in DRC (yet), when they are, you will know,” she wrote Friday, without giving further details.

Rwanda has always flatly denied supporting the M23, a predominantly ethnic-Tutsi force that deserted from the Congolese army last year to turn its guns on its comrades.

The two eastern Kivu provinces, North and South, have been chronically unstable since two wars wracked the vast country between 1996 and 2003, drawing in armies from neighbouring and southern African countries, who fought in part over access to vast mineral wealth.

The latest flaring of fighting in the east risks further complicating the so-called National Dialogue, a nationwide concertation that is supposed to involve the country’s political parties and civil society groups and that is due to open Wednesday in three major cities.

The three major opposition parties have already said they will boycott the dialogue, which is supposed to result in a solution to DR Congo’s political, social and military woes.

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On Thursday delegates from 11 countries in the region will meet in Kampala, with special envoy Robinson in attendance, in the latest of what has been billed as a series of attempts to restore peace to eastern DR Congo.

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