Congolese Armed Forces Occupy Rebel Positions

{{Government troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo have occupied strategic locations in the hills overlooking the eastern city of Goma, as rebel M23 fighters withdrew.}}

The M23 rebels, who have fought an 18-month uprising in the eastern borderlands of DR Congo, said they quit the Kibati hills to allow an independent investigation into shelling that has killed civilians in Goma and the lakeside town of Gisenyi in neighbouring Rwanda.

The Congolese troops, backed by an armed UN force with an expansive mandate, took the positions on Saturday.

Congo’s army troops have been buoyed by the intervention of a new UN brigade fighting alongside them to drive back the M23 rebels. “We won!” they chanted in Kibati, which was, until Thursday, a rebel outpost on the frontline overlooking Goma.

“They did not leave by choice, they were confronted with the power of the army,” Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Hamuli, a spokesman for Congo’s armed forces, told reporters.

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