(Goma) The M23 rebellion seized Ishasha on Sunday, a town on the border with Uganda, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo where a ceasefire was supposed to start, we learned from local sources.
“Ishasha passed without resistance under the control of the M23. The rebels are numerous and well equipped,” while the Congolese police officers fled to Uganda, Romy Sawasawa, president of the civil society of Ishasha, told AFP.
The rebels held a meeting there during which they asked residents to “go about their activities freely,” he added.
They also “asked the Mai-Mai [milices progouvernementales] to join them and the FDLR [rebelles hutu rwandais] to return home to Rwanda,” before calling on the police officers who had fled to return to the town, resident Yasini Mambo told AFP.
The M23 (March 23 Movement) is a predominantly Tutsi rebellion which, supported by Rwanda, has seized large swathes of territory in North Kivu province since the end of 2021.
A town on the border with Uganda, south of Lake Edward, Ishasha is located approximately 200 kilometers northeast of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.
Its capture took place the day after the fall of Nyamilima, a large neighboring town, which also fell without fighting, according to the inhabitants.
According to Ugandan authorities, dozens of Congolese police officers, pushed back by the M23, crossed the border.
“We had about 90 police officers crossing with weapons at the Ishasha border point, they declared themselves,” Uganda’s deputy security chief in Kanungu district, Gad Rugaju, told AFP on Sunday.
Kanungu district is located on the border with the DRC and about 10 km from Nyamilima.
These police officers “were pushed back [samedi] by the M23 rebels and for greater security, they crossed the Ishasha border and were received and taken to the army unit for assessment and probably they will be expelled later after consultations,” he explained.
The official also said that hundreds of civilians entered Uganda through Ishasha and are currently being cared for by local authorities and the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
In the context of this conflict which pits the Congolese army against the M23 rebellion, a ceasefire agreement between Kinshasa and Kigali, supposed to come into force this Sunday, was announced on Tuesday by Angolan mediation.
Asked by AFP, a Congolese security source confirmed the rebels’ capture of Ishasha. “The stories of a ceasefire are a farce,” she said.
Mineral-rich eastern DRC has been ravaged for 30 years by fighting between local and foreign armed groups, dating back to regional wars in the 1990s.