Rwanda’s national army Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) has denied any involvement in activities of rebel outfit M23, which attacked government military bases and villages in Republic of the Congo (DRC).
On Sunday, gunmen seized at least two villages in the eastern DRC near the border with Uganda and Rwanda. Lieutenant-Colonel Muhindo Luanzo, assistant to the administrator of Rutshuru Territory, blamed the attack on fighters from M23, a rebel group that seized large swaths of territory in 2012 and 2013.
“It has been reported that an armed group reported to be Ex-M23 rebels on Sunday 7 November 2021, crossed into DRC From Uganda territory where it is based and attacked and occupied the villages of Tshanzu and Runyoni,” Kagame’s Army said in a statement.
RDF said the Ex-M23 group didn’t seek refuge in Rwanda during their retreat from DRC in 2013, it has been based in Uganda where this attack originated and to where this attack originated and to where the armed group retreated. Many Congolese have since been flocking to Uganda.
The two villages, Tshanzu and Runyoni, were the last redoubts of M23 before they were chased by Congolese and United Nations forces into Uganda and Rwanda in 2013.
Since then, there have been regional efforts to demobilise the fighters, but the group has complained about the slow implementation of a peace accord and some have returned to the DRC.
