Foreigners helped M23 capture Goma, UN chief says
M23 leader Sultani Makenga surrendered to the UPDF on Thursday in Kisoro, south western Uganda.
The UN chief made the remarks in the three-month report on the MONUSCO peacekeepers in Congo, published on Tuesday.
MONUSCO is the French acronym for United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“MONUSCO’s observations of the command and control ability of the attacking force, the effective coordination of its fire support, the quality of its equipment and its general fighting ability, particularly during night time, all suggested the existence of external support, direct and indirect,” Ban said. “The subsequent speed, efficiency and success of the M23’s renewed offensive were rendered possible by a sudden increase in the group’s combatants, coordinated multi-pronged attacks, and attacks with coordination between infantry and fire support,” Ban added.
The M23 rebels seized the eastern city of Goma on November 20, 2012 after UN peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city, which is home to about one million people. The rebels withdrew from the city on December 1 under a ceasefire accord.
The UN has previously accused neighboring Rwanda and Uganda of helping rebels in the eastern Congo, an accusation both countries vehemently deny.
The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.
Since early May 2012, nearly 3 million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.4 million have resettled in Congo, but more than 460,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.
Agencies
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Why don’t you say that Rwanda helped the so-called M23 capture Goma, instead of referring to “external support”? What’s in Rwanda or Uganda for that matter, to be afraid of?
Rubbish intelligence equals rubbish conclusion. Ban was not there when thy captured the city so he is reporting according to the law of “lies in is lies out” How can a small poor country defeat a country as big and as rich as DRC? Even in stature DRC men and women are bigger and stronger and healthier than Rwandans. It is known by everyone that all Rwandans fear all Congolese. This is what I have come to realise. MONUSCO is busy buying and selling gold and diamonds. MONUSCO does not want DRC to be stable and peaceful because that would mean they will go back home and so no more gold and diamonds. So MONUSCO gives rebels arms and ammunitions and some support fire from unseen positions under cover and camouflage. When Kabila decides to deploy his mighty invincible special commando forces trained specially by Belgium, MONUSCO all its force to shoot them across the Uganda border and withdraws leaving M23 to claim the coup.
LET MONUSCO go today and you will see how the FARDC (Kabila’s army) will shoot to pieces the M23 in less than 1 month. A Rwanda army batallion cannot last 30 minutes in front of a FARDC company. So Rwanda helping M23 is MONUSCO invention so as to perpetuate the occupation….selling weapons and ammunition to Mai Mai etc.. Let MONUSCO go if peace is to prevail. Ban Ki Moon has been deceived and has no means of verifying the troops. Remember he is a civilian. If he heard 4 rifles shooting rapid-fire 3 kilometres away and he is told a whole division is advancing 500 metres from where he is, that is what he will write and believe in all sincerity. Soldiers are the cleverest people alive and know civilians to be gullible while civilians think soldiers are fools.