With the recent release of the findings of the Group of Experts of the UN Security Council’s Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Sanctions Committee today, the United States expressed deep concern about the report’s findings that Rwanda is implicated in the provision of support to Congolese rebel groups.
Reports say Rwanda leaders are supporting mutinous elements now operating as the M23 armed group.
In her remarks today at DC, Department Spokesperson Victoria says any such support to the rebels threatens to further undermine security and fuel displacement in the region.
“We are also concerned about the report’s findings that the mutineers have forcibly recruited child soldiers.” -Ms. Nuland
She stresses that with the UN Security Council’s arms embargo, the United States has urged all parties to respond constructively to the Group of Experts’ findings and have asked Rwanda to halt and prevent the provision of such support from its territory.
The United States also urges the DRC and Rwanda to implement the principles of the joint Congolese-Rwandan communique issued following the June 19 meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers in Kinshasa.
Ms. Nuland underlines that restraint and dialogue in the context of respect for each other’s sovereignty offer the best opportunity to resume the difficult work of bringing peace and security to the eastern DRC and the broader region.
In June this year, the United States of America expressed alarm and concern on the continued mutiny of officers and soldiers formerly integrated into the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Reports say the mutineers, known as the March 23 movement, are former Congolese Tutsi rebels who joined the army under a March 2009 peace deal but defected earlier this year.
The United States also reiterated its support for the international community’s comprehensive approach to disarming and demobilizing the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a violent armed group responsible for atrocities against civilians in the DRC’s eastern provinces and whose leaders participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The United States has encouraged the DRC, its neighbors, and its partners to work together to prevent M23, the FDLR, and all other armed groups from receiving outside support in contravention of the UN Security Council’s arms embargo on non-governmental entities and individuals operating in the DRC.
The United States also strongly supported the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, in particular its active efforts to assist the Congolese government in protecting civilians displaced or threatened by clashes between government forces and armed groups.
In May this year, fighting has resumed in eastern DRC in recent weeks between Government forces, dissident groups and militia, causing new inflows of refugees enter Rwanda and Uganda.
Reports say 30,000 refugees have arrived in Uganda this month. In addition, Uganda was already host to 175,127 refugees, including 97,424 from DRC.
The top United Nations refugee official voiced alarm at new inflows of refugees into Rwanda and Uganda who are fleeing fighting in eastern Congo.
According to UNHCR, more than 8,200 refugees have crossed from DRC into Rwanda since 27 April. These are in addition to the 55,000 Congolese refugees that Rwanda is already hosting.
The conflict was coupled with very limited access for humanitarian workers means that many thousands of people are without protection and help.
Reports also states that the recent Congo has caused suffering for civilians who are experiencing displacement, human rights violations, and loss of property.
UNHCR notes that the situation has worsened in recent months amid recent fighting between DRC forces and soldiers loyal to former rebel commander Bosco Ntaganda.
On January this year, a fresh violence erupted in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), displacing more than 100,000 civilians the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
The clashes are reported to have begun in November last year.
There were an estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as of July 2011, the vast majority of them in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. This included over 128,000 people newly displaced in the first quarter of 2011.
A peace agreement in 2003 formally brought years of war to a close, but fighting flared again in North Kivu that same year. An estimated 1.3 million IDPs remain in the DRC, while 350,000 Congolese have fled to other countries.
