The M23 rebel group has taken control of the town of Kalembe in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, strengthening its influence in the region, according to an official and a former MP.
Since 2022, the Tutsi-led M23 has waged an insurgency in the central African country’s violence-torn east.
Congo and the United Nations accuse Rwanda of supporting the organization with its own troops and weaponry. Rwanda rejects this, claiming that it has implemented so-called defensive measures.
Rebels had been stationed 10 kilometers from Kalembe for nearly eight months before seizing control of the town on Sunday morning from Congolese forces and the Wazalendo alliance of government-aligned armed groups, according to Kabaki Alimasi, an official from Walikale territory, where Kalembe is located.
While the combat did not target the local civilian population, many people felt scared and fled to the town of Pinga in Walikale following the attack, according to a local official.
A request for comment from the Congolese army was not responded to promptly.
The majority of Congo’s substantial mineral wealth is found in its eastern provinces.
M23 has been making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from minerals smuggled illegally from territory it has seized, the United Nations said in September.
The conflict has deepened a humanitarian crisis in militia-plagued North Kivu province, where around 2.6 million people were displaced as of End-September, according to the U.N. aid agency OCHA.
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