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Congo has severed all diplomatic ties with Rwanda and South Africa and said on Saturday that nine of its peacekeepers had been killed as fighting escalated with rebels backed in mineral-rich eastern Congo.
The three-year-old M23 insurgency in eastern Congo intensified in January, with the rebels taking control of more territory than ever before, prompting the United Nations to warn of the risk of a wider regional war.
Congo and its allies said on Saturday they had pushed back M23 fighters, who had advanced in the provincial capital of Goma. The sound of nearby heavy bombing rocked the city in the early hours of Saturday.
Congo, the UN and others accuse neighboring Rwanda of fueling the conflict with its own troops and weapons. Rwanda denies it, but the Congolese army said on Saturday that Rwandan snipers were responsible for killing the military governor of North Kivu province on the front lines this week.
Congo recalled its Rwandan diplomats and asked Rwandan authorities to cease diplomatic and consular activities in the Congolese capital within 48 hours, according to a January 24 letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Rwandan Embassy.
Members of the Congolese community gathered in Winnipeg on Saturday to condemn escalating violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while calling for Canadian intervention to bring peace to their home country.
A ministry representative said on Saturday that the letter represented “the most severe form of diplomatic breakdown”.
Rwandan authorities could not immediately be reached for comment due to the late hour.
Victims of peacekeepers
In a sign of heightened international concern, the UN Security Council will meet on Sunday to discuss the crisis, diplomats said. He had previously planned to meet on Monday.
Fierce fighting in recent days has killed two South Africans deployed with the UN peacekeeping mission and seven others in South Africa’s regional bloc in Congo, the South African National Defense Force said on Saturday.
“The members fought bravely to prevent the insurgents from proceeding towards Goma as was their intention,” it said.
Congolese troops and allied forces have pushed the rebels back, but fighting is ongoing across the conflict zone, Congolese army spokesman Sylvain Ekenge told a news briefing, adding that progress in neighboring South Kivu province has also been halted.
The situation appeared calm in Goma during the day on Saturday, with people defiantly going about their business amid a heavy police presence, Reuters reporters said.
The United Nations said it had begun temporarily moving its non-essential staff out of Goma because of the deteriorating security situation.
The escalation and the threat to Goma, home to more than a million people, have prompted renewed calls for Rwanda to secede.
“Rwanda must stop supporting M23 and withdraw,” the European Union said in a statement on Saturday.
M23 briefly managed to take over Goma during a previous rebellion in 2012, which forced international donors to cut aid to Rwanda. Even then, the rebels did not hold as much ground as they do now.
The insecurity has also deepened an already dire humanitarian situation in the eastern provinces, with 400,000 more people forced to flee their homes this year, according to the UN refugee agency.
“The situation facing Goma civilians is becoming increasingly dangerous, and the humanitarian needs are enormous,” Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.
