Dec 15 - The Rwanda-backed M23 group has captured hundreds of Burundian soldiers during its latest offensive in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a rebel official said, as clashes continued despite a warning from the Trump administration.
Last week M23 entered the strategic town of Uvira near the border with Burundi, less than a week after the presidents of Congo and Rwanda met in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump and affirmed their commitment to a peace deal known as the Washington Accords.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Rwanda's actions in eastern Congo violated the Washington Accords and vowed to "take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept".
Rwanda denies supporting M23 and has blamed Congolese and Burundian forces for the renewed fighting. A United Nations group of experts report published in July said Rwanda exercised command and control over the rebels.
"We have several hundred Burundian soldiers with us whom we captured during combat, and we intend to return them home," Patrick Busu Bwa Ngwi, the M23-appointed governor of South Kivu province, told a press conference on Saturday.
Busu Bwa Ngwi said Burundi should send an official request for their return, and that M23 wants all Burundian forces "to leave our territory and return home in peace."
There was no immediate response on Monday from Burundi, which has had troops in eastern Congo for years.
REBELS THREATEN TO PUSH FURTHER SOUTH
M23 staged a lightning offensive in January, quickly seizing eastern Congo's two biggest cities in fighting that has killed thousands of people while displacing hundreds of thousands more.
The insurgents have since worked to establish a parallel administration in the east, potentially setting the vast Central African country up for an enduring fracture.
Congo is rich in minerals, supplying about 70% of the world’s cobalt as well as significant volumes of tin, tantalum and tungsten.
The Trump administration hopes that an eventual peace deal could clear the way for significant Western investments in mining in eastern Congo.
Busu Bwa Ngwi, the M23-appointed South Kivu governor, said on Saturday the rebels would not hesitate to push south to Katanga province, which has heavy cobalt and copper deposits, in order to stop alleged abuses of civilians by Congolese forces.
A local official appointed by the government in Kinshasa told Reuters on Monday that Congo's military and allied forces had withdrawn from Makobola, 12 km south of Uvira, and were reorganising to try to take back lost territory. A source within M23 told Reuters that the rebels were in Makobola.
Global charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said on Friday it was suspending activities in Baraka, about 100 km south of Uvira, "in response to escalating violence and threats posed by the conflict".
(Reporting by Congo newsroom and Sonia Rolley in Paris; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet)
