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The M23 rebels backed by Rwanda have taken control of a mining city in the province of the East of the Democratic Democratic Republic of the Congo, eight sources said on Wednesday, in an apparent violation of a high unilateral fire they declared this week.
Nyabibwe’s capture in Lake Kivu takes the rebels one step closer to the Bukavu provincial capital about 70 kilometers south, a city that the rebels said last week that they had no intention of capturing. M23 announced a high fire on Monday.
Eight people, including local officials, a civil society representative, rebels and an international security source, confirmed that Nyabibwe had fallen to the rebels.
“There have been clashes from 5 in the morning, and they were at 9 in the morning that the city fell into the hands of the rebels. They are in the city center at this time,” said the civil society leader, to who likes the other the sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
Look | Rubber people run out of food, water, says WFP: 
The World Food Program warns about food scarcity, clean water and medical supplies in rubber, in the east of the Congo, where the combat waves have displaced thousands of people and interrupted supply chains.
Nyabibwe, where the mines produce gold, coltan and other metals, is a more than half rubber shopping center, the capital of the province of North Kivu that the rebels took last week, and Bukavu.
Congo Communications Minister Patrick Mostaya told Reuters rebels raped the fire at night and faced resistance from the Congolese armed forces around Nyabibwe.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the rebel coalition of the Conger River Alliance that includes M23, confirmed that the group moved to Nyabibwe. “They attacked and defended each other,” he told Reuters.
This advance could indicate that M23 had renewed the impulse towards Bukavu that the group launched after they seized rubber last week.
The capture of the largest city in the east of Congo displaced hundreds of thousands of people and fueled the fears of a broader regional war.
The Congo accuses Rwanda of using the M23 to loot valuable mineral deposits. Ruanda says he is acting in self -defense and to protect ethnic tutsis.
‘Human toll is amazing’
The scale of civil damage was still emerging in rubber, where people last week were trapped in crossfire and fighting destroyed buildings, overwhelmed hospitals and left bodies scattered in the streets.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday estimated that at least 2,800 people died in rubber.
“Human toll is amazing. We and our partners are struggling to evaluate the total reach of the situation,” said spokesman Jens Laerke by email.
International criminal prosecutors said they were closely monitoring the events after reports of possible war crimes in rubber battle.
The Red Cross International Committee said that its rubber medical warehouse was looted last week and would take months to restore.
The bishop of the city, Willy Ngumembi, deplored on Wednesday damages to a maternity room by explosives and called Rwanda, Congo and Burundi, who also has troops in the region that helps to Congo, to keep conversations to avoid an escalation of the conflict .
Look | The Congolese London reflects on the rebel rubber acquisition: 
The rebels, backed by Rwanda, say they have captured the largest city in the east of the Congo with the United Nations saying that there is “mass panic” in rubber. Didier Kagongo is a London of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He joined London Morning to talk about how the situation is affecting him and his family at home.
In the capital Kinshasa, the legislators of the National Assembly held a long extraordinary session of closed doors to discuss the crisis before a summit with leaders of East and South Africa in Tanzania this weekend.
A diplomatic source said Rwanda opposed the presence of troops from the Southern Africa Development Community that support Congo and extended its mission at the end of last year.
Despite the renewed fight, Malawi cited the high fire on Wednesday in his order so that his troops withdraw from force.
