On the doorstep of Goma – the location of the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission on the planet – there are indicators of surrendered troopers and fierce battles.
As we walked on the street in entrance of the United Nations’ predominant base, we stepped round fatigues, rounds and helmets as soon as belonging to the Congolese military combating the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.
The rebels now management the strategic metropolis of Goma after combating for the border submit with Rwanda. It sits south of the swathes of mineral-rich mining territory the rebels have been seizing by final yr.
Picture:
Pic: Reuters
We see them packed on the again of vehicles nonetheless marked by the FARDC emblem of the Congolese military.
I ask one man watching from the facet of the street what he makes of this excessive shift.
“This is bad!” he says to me discreetly on the facet of the street, with our automobile as cowl from the prying eyes of the junior M23 troopers.
“My family is not good. I am not good – we don’t know what comes next.”
Extra on Democratic Republic Of Congo
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
0:26
Watch as M23 rebels take over Goma in DRC
Small teams are assembly the rebels with cheers and clapping.
We can’t inform whether it is reduction from the Congolese state or a vital precaution for a lot of who don’t need to go away their hometown on the cusp of a brand new administration.
However earlier than they will settle in and arrange a neighborhood authority, M23 have time to cease and humiliate their former enemy.
Not simply the Congolese troops, however the Romanian mercenaries combating alongside them.
Picture:
Pic: Reuters
MONUSCO, the United Nations’s peacekeeping group within the DRC, brokered an evacuation convoy for the paid fighters to go to Rwanda with vehicles filled with Uruguayan peacekeeping troops watching as M23 led the handover by their newly-captured border.
Picture:
Pic: AP
Because the Romanian males cross by in a single file, they’re chastised by M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma who faucets them mockingly one after the other.
“Come on soldier!” he mentioned. “You were fighting for money – we were fighting for our life!”
I nook him as he flags the buses by – might you have got come this far with out Rwanda’s assist?
He tries to maintain busy, and after the fourth time I repeat the query, he yells into my face in French:
“We are a Congolese army, we are Congolese! We fight for a fair and noble cause – we are Congolese. We are not helped by Rwanda!”
Picture:
M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma gave a feverish denial that the rebels are backed by Rwanda
It’ll take greater than a feverish denial to undermine the extensively identified assist of Rwanda for M23 – one which has been condemned on the highest ranges of the United Nations and senior diplomats from around the globe.
Because the “Welcome to Rwanda” signal will get nearer, the final Romanian mercenary limps throughout with a wounded leg flanked by a UN safety advisor and an Indian medic.
A surreal sight of a person heading dwelling after combating a conflict abroad surrounded by Congolese households fleeing the conflict at dwelling.
