The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDCongo) accused, this Saturday, Rwanda of having attacked Goma airport with ‘drones’, in the east of the country, a region where they have “During the night, at 02:00 local time, the Rwandan army’s attack drones, which obviously left Rwandan territory, violated the territorial limits of DRCongo,” he said. the army spokesman for North Kivu, lieutenant colonel Guillaume Ndjike, cited by AFP. According to Guillaume Ndjike, in a video broadcast by the provincial governor’s communications service, taking into account the trajectories followed by the ‘drones’ shots , these were aimed at Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) aircraft. “FARDC aircraft were not hit”, but civilian planes “were damaged”, he said, without specifying how many planes were affected, nor how many projectiles were fired. During the night, residents of Goma, including an AFP correspondent, heard two loud explosions. Despite this incident, Goma International Airport is operating normally today, according to sources on the ground. of which Goma is the capital, has been ravaged since the end of 2021 by a conflict that pits the M23 (“March 23 Movement”), supported by units of the Rwandan army, against the Congolese army associated in particular with armed groups known as “patriots” and two foreign private military companies. Several thousand soldiers and militiamen are involved, as well as artillery, Sukhoi-25 fighter planes and ‘drones’.According to a United Nations document consulted by AFP, The Rwandan army also uses sophisticated weaponry, such as surface-to-air missiles, in support of the M23. The M23 is a group of predominantly ‘Tutsi’ rebels who took up arms again in late 2021 and have since conquered large areas of the territory of North Kivu. Goma, a city with more than a million inhabitants, located between Lake Kivu, to the south, and the border with Rwanda, to the east, is currently practically isolated from all its transport routes. land access to the interior of the country, to the north and west. DRCongo accuses Rwanda and its M23 deputies of wanting to take control of minerals in eastern Congo. The M23, for its part, claims to defend a threatened segment of the population and demands negotiations, which Kinshasa refuses, excluding discussions with “terrorists”.On Friday, the Angolan President, João Lourenço, called, in Addis Ababa, a small summit to discuss the situation in eastern DRCongo, on the sidelines of the 37th Summit of the African Union (AU). The Angolan President is the AU’s mediator in the crisis and, according to the Angolan news agency Angop, this small meeting aimed to “discuss the relaunch of the peace process in eastern DRCongo”. (RM/NMinuto)Source:Rádio Moçambique Online
Tradução automática do artigo:Aceder ao artigo original