Thousands of people have demonstrated against the M23 rebel group, one of many fighting in the eastern region of the country, throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Catholic church urged people to protest, and much of the ire was focused at Rwanda, which Kigali denies supporting the M23 rebels, despite DR Congo’s accusation. They then marched for peace as people poured out of Sunday services across the nation.
The Catholic church has a significant impact on the nation. Church leaders are urging Western nations to act more firmly against Rwanda’s government for supporting the M23 rebels.
At demonstrations in Kinshasa, signs decried the international community’s hypocrisy and opposed the balkanisation of the DR Congo. In an effort to put an end to the bloodshed, regional meetings have been taking place.
However, in the past, the presence of numerous armies has only served to exacerbate the violence in the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo. Several East African nations are sending troops.
The M23 rebellion was an armed conflict in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), that occurred between the March 23 Movement and government forces. The rebellion was part of continued fighting in the region after the formal end of the Second Congo War in 2003. It broke out in 2012 and continued into 2013, when a peace agreement was made among eleven African nations, and the M23 troops surrendered in Uganda.
In April 2012, former National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) soldiers mutinied against the DRC government and the peacekeeping contingent of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
Mutineers formed a rebel group called the March 23 Movement, M23, also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army. It was composed of former members of the rebel CNDP, and allegedly sponsored by the government of the neighbouring states of Rwanda and Uganda.