{{The M23 rebel group in eastern D.R. Congo that has been waging a war against Kinshasa has refuted media reports that it is forcefully recruiting people into its ranks.}}
“The M23 Movement categorically states that there is no and has never been any forced recruitment by M23,” Rene Abandi, the M23 spokesperson said in a statement, maintaining that membership into its ranks was on one’s free will.
“M23 Movement reiterates that membership in M23 is voluntary and based on belief in and a strong commitment to the cause of the Movement which is a system of governance that serves the interests of all Congolese.”
The rebel group also disowned Lt. Richard Bisangwa, who in an interview with a Ugandan media at the Amnesty Commission offices in Kampala, accused the M23 movement of running clandestine recruitment cells in Uganda, particularly in Kampala.
He claimed to have forcefully been conscripted into the ranks of the outfit after being duped of a lucrative contract with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
“Lt. Richard Bisangwa who claims to have served under the CNDP (National Congress for Defense of the People) in 2008 and later forcefully recruited into M23, is not known to M23 and did not at any one time serve under CNDP,” Abandi said.
M23 accused MONUSCO of orchestrating the falsehoods against them.
“MONUSCO, which Lt. Bisangwa claims facilitated his escape and journey from M23 territory to Kampala, is an active fighting force against M23 in North Kivu Province and have over the last two years been largely responsible for shaping a negative script about M23 as well as magnifying and distorting key M23-related issues in order to fit other narratives and agenda,” the statement reads.
source: NV
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