The DR Congo army allegedly blasted a vital bridge close to Walikale, according to rebels
The government coalition forces were accused by the AFC/M23 rebel movement in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo of demolishing a crucial bridge in the North Kivu province’s Walikale area, obstructing the flow of people and supplies.
The rebels claimed that coalition forces’ air and artillery attacks on Sunday, September 28, damaged the Mpeti bridge.
The operation was executed by Congolese government forces in cooperation with their partners, including the Burundi National Defence Force (FDNB), mercenaries, FDLR, Mai-Mai Wazalendo, and the Rwandan genocidal militia, according to AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka.
He urged national and international players to denounce ongoing attacks on critical infrastructure.
In a statement published on X on Sunday, Kanyuka claimed that the deliberate and organized effort to demolish the fundamental infrastructure of the Congolese people was causing civilian communities to become isolated and hindering the free flow of people and products.
“The connection between riverbank communities has been broken by this careless act of intentional sabotage, which targeted vital public infrastructure, denying them access to necessities.”
According to Kanyuka, the incident was planned from Uvira in South Kivu with the goal of “starving and suffocating innocent civilians.”
The group said that the bridge’s destruction violates the truce and jeopardizes the Qatar-mediated peace process in Doha.
The ceasefire is still being violated by the Kinshasa regime’s persistent criminal acts, which also disregard the Doha peace process and undermine the ceaseless efforts of regional leaders and international partners to find a peaceful settlement to the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he continued.
The AFC/M23 stated that it will “eliminate any threat at its source and establish a security perimeter to neutralize negative forces.”
