UN troops are charged with sending armed soldiers and FDLR into Goma with the intent to murder people

UN peacekeepers in DR Congo have been accused by the AFC/M23 rebel movement of helping to free armed Congolese soldiers and members of the Rwandan genocidal militia, FDLR, who were held in their custody with the goal of murdering civilians in Goma, the rebel-captured capital of North Kivu Province, last week.

The rebels took steps to guarantee a return to normalcy shortly after taking the city, and on February 5, the AFC/M23 named new North Kivu Province commanders. “There is a need and urgency to organize the territorial administration in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the rebel commanders said in an announcement. AFC coordinator Corneille Nangaa and his deputy and M23 president, Bertrand Bisimwa, signed the statement appointing Joseph Bahati Musanga as governor of North Kivu.

Residents of Goma and the province as a whole claim that they have not experienced peace and quiet in decades.

AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement posted on Thursday, February 6, that 100 armed Congolese army (FARDC) and FDLR militia members were sent into Goma by the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), MONUSCO, in order to “kill civilians.”

“MONUSCO’s criminal activities”

Remaining members of the masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi established the FDLR, a terrorist group located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For thirty years, the militia organization has resided in the adjacent nation.

Kanyuka said on X, “We are warning the public about the criminal activities of MONUSCO in Goma: it released 100 armed FARDC and FDLR elements into the city to kill civilians.”

Shortly after the city was taken, rebel troops overran the liberated armed elements, which were among those who were cantoned in the MONUSCO facility.

Five of the infiltrators—two FDLR members and three FARDC fighters—were previously apprehended by the rebel forces, according to Kanyuka. They were discovered in possession of three grenades and four firearms.

Kanyuka also said that FARDC soldiers were still attacking M23 positions and people, accusing the Congolese army of breaking the truce that was declared on Monday, February 3.

Four civilians, including a child, were killed when the heavily populated Nyabibwe neighborhood and its environs were attacked by a FARDC fighter plane (Sukhoi-25), according to Kanyuka.

Nyabibwe was later taken by the insurgents.

MONUSCO has not yet addressed the charges.

There are still over 3,000 Congolese troops and their supporters on the MONUSCO site.

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) are gathering in Dar es Salaama, Tanzania, on Saturday in an effort to find a long-term solution to the problem in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.