Crowds of Congolese police officers who switched to the M23 rebel group sang and clapped in occupied Bukavu city on Saturday, preparing for retraining under the authority of the rebels who are intent on showing they plan to stick around and govern.
The M23 rebels advanced a week ago into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s second-largest city, which was rocked by looting and unrest as Congolese forces withdrew without a fight.
The M23’s capture of swaths of eastern Congo and valuable mineral deposits has fanned fears of a wider war and led the United Nations Security Council to demand unanimously Friday that it cease hostilities and withdraw.
In Bukavu, there was no sign this call would be heeded. The assembled police, wearing brand new uniforms and black berets, were told they would leave for a few days of training and come back to support the M23 rebels.
“May you come back to us in good shape so that together we can continue to liberate our country,” said Police Commander Jackson Kamba.
Around 1,800 police officers have surrendered and were going for retraining with 500 more due to do so, said Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for the AFC rebel alliance that includes the M23 group.
The Congolese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ongoing crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to escalate, with tensions involving the Congolese government, and the M23 rebel group. The DRC government has officially designated the M23 rebel group as a terrorist organization, while the United Nations and the United States classify it as an armed rebel group.
Several locals expressed skepticism. The M23’s arrival in Bukavu “has paralyzed the entire life of the whole area, even if some activities are resuming in different ways,” said resident Josue Kayeye. “We cannot applaud anything done by force.”
Congolese troops are under pressure on multiple fronts. The town of Minembwe in the mountains of South Kivu and its airfield were captured Friday by a Tutsi militia allegedly allied with the M23, a local official, a military source and a U.N. source said. A few days earlier, its leader, Colonel Makanika, was killed by a Congolese military drone.
East African defense chiefs met in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday to discuss the crisis. An internal report on the meeting, seen by Reuters, showed that the group noted that there was “no clear picture of the situation on the ground” amid the escalation and M23’s occupation of major cities and airports.
The group emphasized the need for direct engagement between all parties to the conflict, according to the report.
Congo has repeatedly refused to hold talks with M23.
The ethnic Tutsi-led M23 is the latest in a string of groups to take up arms in the name of Tutsis in Congo. The M23 and neighboring Rwanda reject allegations from Congo that it is a Rwandan proxy bent on looting the east’s reserves of gold and coltan.
