(PHOTO 2: 60,000 IDPs fled this camp north of Goma Saturday ahead of
advancing M23 insurgents)
***
Contacted by phone early this morning, one of the passengers of the
Kinshasa-bound CAA flight grounded at Goma airport yesterday morning
told me that the North-Kivu manager of the airline told him they could
leave the city tomorrow Tuesday.
Asked about the security situation in Goma, he told me there was an
eerie calm in the city as both warring sides are awaiting the "start
of negotiations" to end the armed confrontations!
(LuAnne of the Virunga National Park published today a post on the
Park's blog that also gave about the same bizarre atmosphere in the
North Kivu provincial capital:
"Last night as the sun went down, M23
rebels faced an army of Congolese tanks
just a few hundred meters away and very
close to Virunga's alternative energy
center on the northern edge of Goma.")
When I told the strandred CAA passenger that the government's position
was that there are to be no negotiations with the insurgents, he said:
"The government has run out of options. They've lost the plot!"
He added that a government negotiating team is due in Goma today or tomorrow!
While I don't buy this wild rumor--for one, M23's demands are
outrageous (including a withdrawal of FARDC from Goma); and secondly,
just yesterday ex-presidential candidate Vital Kamerhe was urging the
government to negotiate--the idea of the government "losing the plot"
was pretty much on my mind as I watched DRC Media Minister Lambert
Mende read the "statement of the government" Saturday, November 17.
Mende's statement says in part:
"This Saturday, 17 November 2012, in the early morning, after a long
artillery preparation fired from the Rwandan territory, some 4,000 men
in motorized columns and on foot have once again converged on Kibumba
[from where they were previously repelled] by skirting around, through
Rwandan territory, the FARDC troops deployed along the Rugari-Rutshuru
road."
Mende also said that in the previous combat, the FARDC had uncoveted
clear evidence of direct participation by the Rwanda Defense Forces
(RDF).
Mende claimed that one RDF lieutenant-colonel named Maombi was among
the enemies felled by the FARDC while another RDF elment, namely
Sergeant Claude Rugamba was "captured."
Which seems to beg the following question: given this latest evidence
of Rwandan direct military involvement, and given the reluctance of
some UN Security Council to namely call Kagame to account, why the
heck doesn't the DRC also attack Rwanda?
In the meantime, as the plot comtinues to slip from government
control, it's the Congolese civilian population that has been bearing
the brunt of the fighting.
According to LuAnne's post mentioned above:
"A camp of 60,000 displaced people north
of Goma completely vacated as M23
advanced on the city, taking the plastic
tarps and what they could carry. Reports
say thousands of new refugees have fled
the fighting."
Launching attacks on Rwanda, in my view, would be a way of lessening
the misery of Congolese IDPs as those attacks could make Rwanda think
twice before thinning out its territorial defenses by sending troops
on its Kivu pillaging venture.
***
PHOTO CREDITS: 1) www.radiookapi.net; & 2) www.gorillacd.org.
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