Congolese President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi has vowed to restore government authority in the east, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized control of the city of Goma and are reportedly advancing south to take more territory.<\/p>\n
In a televised address to the nation, he said a \u201cvigorous and coordinated response\u201d against what he called \u201cterrorists\u201d was under way.<\/p>\n
He criticised the international community for \u201cinaction\u201d and for not doing enough in the wake of the escalating security crisis.<\/p>\n
The weeks-long offensive by the rebels has promoted warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis and growing international pressure to end the fighting.<\/p>\n
During Wednesday night\u2019s address, Tshisekedi rallied all Congolese to join together and support the army\u2019s fight to retake control.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe sure of one thing: the Democratic Republic of Congo will not let itself be humiliated or\u00a0crushed. We will fight and we will triumph,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The fighting has forced about 500,000 people from their homes, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.<\/p>\n
Since the fighting began, the city has been cut off from electricity and water and food is in scarce supply.<\/p>\n
An East African regional bloc virtual summit on Wednesday evening convened by Kenya\u2019s President William Ruto,\u00a0which Tshisekedi snubbed<\/a>, called for a \u201cpeaceful settlement of the conflicts\u201d.<\/p>\n It was attended by Rwanda\u2019s Paul Kagame, alongside the leaders of other member countries Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania and Somalia.<\/p>\n The heads of state \u201cstrongly urged the government of the DR Congo to directly engage with all stakeholders, including the M23 and other armed groups that have grievances\u201d.<\/p>\n Tshisekedi has been refusing to talk directly to the M23 \u2013 insisting on only talking to Rwanda.<\/p>\n The East African leaders also called for a joint summit of the bloc and leaders of the southern African regional community (Sadc) to \u201cdeliberate on the way forward\u201d. DR Congo is a member of both the East African Community and Sadc.<\/p>\n Tshisekedi paid tribute to the Sadc soldiers \u201cfighting alongside us\u201d and UN forces who had died in the wake of the rebel assault on Goma.<\/p>\n Thirteen South African peacekeepers have been killed in the deadly conflict in Goma, leading to heightened tensions between South Africa and Rwanda.<\/p>\n On Wednesday night, Kagame said Rwanda was ready for a confrontation with South Africa if necessary, following a claim by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that M23 fighters and Rwandan forces were responsible for the deaths.<\/p>\n In a strongly worded statement directly responding to Ramaphosa on X, Kagame accused him of distorting their private conversations about the volatile situation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The exchange marks a significant escalation in tensions between the two nations, whose relationship has been fragile for several years.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Angola called for the Congolese and Rwandan leaders to meet urgently in Luanda.<\/p>\n The country, which mediated a failed attempt at talks in December before the M23 launched its latest offensive, also called for the resumption of East African Community-led discussions relating to the unrest in eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n It came as Tshisekedi visited Luanda for discussions on the next steps in the Angola-led talks.<\/p>\n Both the EAC-led and the Luanda peace efforts have in the past failed to resolve the crisis.<\/p>\n The post DR Congo president vows \u2018vigorous\u2019 fight to halt M23 rebel advance<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Congolese President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi has vowed to restore government authority in the east, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized control of the city of Goma and are reportedly advancing south to take more territory. In a televised address to the nation, he said a \u201cvigorous and coordinated response\u201d against what he called \u201cterrorists\u201d was under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}