M23 claims DR Congo drone attack as UN mission readies

The M23 armed group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting an airport in the DR Congo, further dimming hopes for a swift peace in the country’s volatile eastern region.

It comes just a day after the announcement that the United Nations would soon send a mission to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to help enforce a ceasefire.

The resource-rich eastern DRC, which borders Rwanda and Burundi, has been mired in unabated violence waged by scores of armed groups for three decades.

In late 2021, the Rwanda-backed M23 resumed fighting after lying dormant for years. After a lightning offensive, the anti-governmental group seized North Kivu’s provincial capital Goma in January last year.

Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, fell to the group and its Rwandan allies the following month.

Since the sharp escalation in fighting, peace efforts led by Qatar and the United States have sought to end the crisis, leading to the signing of two separate accords.

Qatar has been mediating between the Congolese government and the M23 for several months, and a commitment towards a ceasefire was signed in July.

In a parallel effort, the DRC and Rwanda formalised a US-brokered peace deal in December in Washington.

The agreements provide for a monitoring mechanism for the implementation of a “permanent” ceasefire, with support on the ground by the UN mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

On Tuesday, Qatar announced a first UN mission would soon leave for Uvira on the Burundian border, the last big city in eastern DRC where fighting took place.

Despite the agreements, however, the guns have not been silenced and clashes have continued on the ground.

In recent days, fighting has erupted near Minembwe in South Kivu province, a few dozen kilometres south of Uvira, according to local and military sources.

Over the weekend, drones targeted the strategic airport in Kisangani in northeastern DRC, which lies around 400 kilometres (250 miles) from where M23 fighters are active.

“Eight enemy drones were neutralised before reaching their target,” the provincial government of Tshopo, where Kisangani is the main city, said on Monday.

No casualties were reported.

Security around the airport, which is also used by Congolese armed forces, was stepped up and some residents have fled, witnesses told AFP.

– Drone warfare –

Authorities immediately pointed the finger at the M23 and Kigali.

On Wednesday, the group confirmed in a statement that it was behind the drone attack between Saturday and Sunday which had destroyed “the military drone command centre installed at Kisangani airport”.

Kisangani, a city of more than 1.5 million inhabitants on the banks of the Congo River, is largely dependent on its airport due to the poor state of the roads.

The civilian airport is also used by the Congolese army and its aircraft.

The runway is used for the take-off of army attack drones and fighter jets, which regularly conduct strikes on positions of the M23 militia and the Rwandan army.

“The use of drones and mercenaries is neither exclusive to, nor reserved for Kinshasa,” the M23 said, highlighting the presence of equipment abandoned by Congolese forces, particularly at the airports in Goma and near Bukavu.

The use of drones has become a key part of the conflict in eastern DRC, with both sides accusing the other of regularly using them for attacks in densely populated areas.

With the attack in Kisangani, the M23 is apparently seeking to “neutralise” the DRC’s ability to use drone technology, a security source told AFP.

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