Kinshasa’s drone kills 6 people and injures 41 in Masisi according to AFC/M23
The AFC/M23 movement has announced that six individuals lost their lives and 41 others sustained injuries in a drone strike on Masisi Centre, North Kivu, on Friday, January 2.
The rebels charged that Congolese government forces and their allies executed the attack from Uvira, South Kivu.
AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka stated that the assaults included airstrikes and indiscriminate bombardments initiated from Uvira by a coalition comprising the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), Burundian forces, the Rwandan genocidal militia FDLR, foreign mercenaries, and local armed groups such as the Mai-Mai and Wazalendo militias.
Kanyuka stated that the death toll could increase as the attacks continue unabated. He denounced the ongoing breaches of the ceasefire.
“There have been ongoing breaches of the ceasefire, acts of hate, and ethnic cleansing, alongside persistent and organized assaults by the coalition forces of the Kinshasa regime targeting our positions and heavily populated regions, whether on land, at sea, or in the air.”
The spokesperson also condemned the Congolese government for utilizing Uvira as a base for the attacks. The city was taken by AFC/M23 on December 10, a decision the group claimed aimed to halt the killings and suffering of unarmed Banyamulenge civilians.
Nonetheless, the movement subsequently declared a unilateral withdrawal from the town, characterizing it as a confidence-building measure intended to promote the Doha Peace Process and attain a lasting resolution to the conflict in eastern DR Congo.
The withdrawal occurred on December 17, following the city’s previous role as a stronghold for government forces, Burundian troops, and their allied militias. Uvira has once again become an operational hub for renewed offensives, as indicated by the movement.
“Indeed, the Kinshasa regime aimed to exploit the withdrawal of our troops by reoccupying the relevant entities, which it utilizes as bases to conduct repeated, massive, and sustained offensives against our positions as well as against densely populated areas,” Kanyuka stated.
“This is especially true in the towns of Uvira and Makobola, where the forces of Kinshasa have perpetrated widespread rapes against women and engaged in systematic looting.”
In a separate post on his official X account, Willy Manzi, the Vice Governor of North Kivu, expressed his condemnation of the attacks. He contended that “These are the very people (President Felix) Tshisekedi vowed to support, asserting he would reside among them until their suffering ceased,”
“Rather than heeding their pleas, the [president] has opted to allocate millions towards drones, aiming to transform eastern DR Congo into a desolate territory.”
Manzi further asserted that communities in eastern DR Congo would persist in opposing a “murderous regime.”
