(Reuters) - After years of relative peace, Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province has been gripped by two months of clashes that have killed several hundred fighters and forced more than 100,000 civilians from their homes.
The fighting and reports of support for the rebels by military officials in
neighbouring Rwanda have stoked fears of a slide back into broader conflict in
an eastern region that has long been a tinderbox of ethnic violence.
Here is a look at the players and dynamics in Congo's east:
"TERMINATOR" AND THE REBELS:
- The mutineers, believed to number about 600, are fighting under the banner of the so-called M23 movement, which refers to a March 2009 peace deal that ended a previous rebellion in North Kivu, but which the rebels say has since been broken.
- The group's official leader is Colonel Sultani Makenga but the latest bout of violence was sparked by former rebels, who had been integrated into the Congolese army, taking to the bush again when the government said it would arrest another commander, General Bosco Ntaganda, known as "The Terminator".
- Ntaganda was a senior leader of several previous Congolese rebellions and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and use of child soldiers in an earlier conflict in Congo. Thomas Lubanga, his co-accused, in March became the first person to be found guilty by the international court.
- Ntaganda denies the charges and was instrumental in a Rwandan-backed plan to end the previous CNDP rebellion, in which he was a senior figure opposing the government in Kinshasa for several years after historic post-war elections in 2006.
- With the backing of Kigali, which experts say had supported the CNDP and other rebel groups in Congo, Ntaganda overthrew then CNDP leader Laurent Nkund and guided the insurgent group to the 2009 peace deal. He was subsequently seen by both governments as a guarantor of a subsequent fragile peace that held until earlier this year.
* WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?
- Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, has been pressured into calling for Ntaganda's arrest as part of efforts to repair ties with the international community after his re-election late last year, which was widely viewed as flawed by foreign observers.
- The government says it has killed more than 200 rebels in weeks of fighting but there appears to be a stalemate on the ground, with the rebels surrounded by the army, which has pounded hill-top positions with tanks and helicopter gunships.
- Some fleeing rebel fighters have told Reuters, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch that they were recruited by military officials in Rwanda to fight in Congo.
* VIOLENCE AND HUNGER AMID MINERAL WEALTH:
- While there have been improvements in the army, Ntaganda highlights Congo's struggle to break persisting power structures in the east, where former rebels often profit from illegal mining and taxation, nearly a decade after Congo's last war was officially declared over.
- Aside from the M23, there are a number of other local and foreign armed groups which continue to operate in Congo's east, despite the presence of some 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
- Although the foreign armies that took part in Congo's two wars have left the country, the simmering conflicts that go on still take lives. Violence, hunger, and disease have killed several million people since 1998, aid groups say.
- The conflict has disrupted Congolese and international efforts to bring more transparency to a resource-rich mining sector that could bring wider prosperity to the central African nation but has for years fuelled conflict instead.
Sources: Reuters/Human Reuters Watch/www.cfr.org/www.globalwitness.org/UN reports/www.crisisgroup.org, Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:18pm GMT
Here is a look at the players and dynamics in Congo's east:
"TERMINATOR" AND THE REBELS:
- The mutineers, believed to number about 600, are fighting under the banner of the so-called M23 movement, which refers to a March 2009 peace deal that ended a previous rebellion in North Kivu, but which the rebels say has since been broken.
- The group's official leader is Colonel Sultani Makenga but the latest bout of violence was sparked by former rebels, who had been integrated into the Congolese army, taking to the bush again when the government said it would arrest another commander, General Bosco Ntaganda, known as "The Terminator".
- Ntaganda was a senior leader of several previous Congolese rebellions and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and use of child soldiers in an earlier conflict in Congo. Thomas Lubanga, his co-accused, in March became the first person to be found guilty by the international court.
- Ntaganda denies the charges and was instrumental in a Rwandan-backed plan to end the previous CNDP rebellion, in which he was a senior figure opposing the government in Kinshasa for several years after historic post-war elections in 2006.
- With the backing of Kigali, which experts say had supported the CNDP and other rebel groups in Congo, Ntaganda overthrew then CNDP leader Laurent Nkund and guided the insurgent group to the 2009 peace deal. He was subsequently seen by both governments as a guarantor of a subsequent fragile peace that held until earlier this year.
* WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?
- Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, has been pressured into calling for Ntaganda's arrest as part of efforts to repair ties with the international community after his re-election late last year, which was widely viewed as flawed by foreign observers.
- The government says it has killed more than 200 rebels in weeks of fighting but there appears to be a stalemate on the ground, with the rebels surrounded by the army, which has pounded hill-top positions with tanks and helicopter gunships.
- Some fleeing rebel fighters have told Reuters, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch that they were recruited by military officials in Rwanda to fight in Congo.
* VIOLENCE AND HUNGER AMID MINERAL WEALTH:
- While there have been improvements in the army, Ntaganda highlights Congo's struggle to break persisting power structures in the east, where former rebels often profit from illegal mining and taxation, nearly a decade after Congo's last war was officially declared over.
- Aside from the M23, there are a number of other local and foreign armed groups which continue to operate in Congo's east, despite the presence of some 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
- Although the foreign armies that took part in Congo's two wars have left the country, the simmering conflicts that go on still take lives. Violence, hunger, and disease have killed several million people since 1998, aid groups say.
- The conflict has disrupted Congolese and international efforts to bring more transparency to a resource-rich mining sector that could bring wider prosperity to the central African nation but has for years fuelled conflict instead.
Sources: Reuters/Human Reuters Watch/www.cfr.org/www.globalwitness.org/UN reports/www.crisisgroup.org, Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:18pm GMT
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