Earlier this week the Tutsi-led M23 rebels seized Goma, the largest city in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo β home to lucrative gold, coltan and tin ore mines β before shifting their focus to Bukavu in neighbouring South Kivu province.
After early progress, however, three sources including South Kivu governor Jean-Jacques Purusi Sadiki told Reuters the Congolese army and its allies were succeeding in holding the rebels back. One person with direct knowledge of the fighting said a force of around 1, including Congolese troops, Burundian soldiers and local militia fighters had deployed to defend the town of Nyabibwe some 50 km 30 miles from Bukavu.
Kigali has rejected the findings of UN investigators that it has sent thousands of soldiers and equipment into Congo to support M Relations between Rwanda and Burundi are already hostile. Fighting between their two armies in Congo would heighten the risk, expressed by the United Nations, of a repeat of the kind of regional war that killed millions between and , most from hunger and disease.
Rwanda did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UN sources estimate there are several thousand Burundian troops, mainly in South Kivu, where they are deployed in support of the Congolese army at the request of the government in Kinshasa. A Burundian official, who asked not to be named, acknowledged that, after having received increasing requests for help from Kinshasa in the past two years, Burundi had deployed between 8, and 10, soldiers in Congo.
Global powers including the United States, Britain and France have called for an end to the fighting and have sought to pressure Rwandan President Paul Kagame to end his support for M But analysts say a reluctance by world powers to take on Rwanda, other global distractions and on-the-ground military realities will complicate efforts to defeat the rebels.
