{"id":53829,"date":"2025-04-11T10:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T10:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/afc-m23-accuses-congo-burundi-forces-of-deliberate-ceasefire-violations-in\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T10:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T10:31:10","slug":"afc-m23-accuses-congo-burundi-forces-of-deliberate-ceasefire-violations-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/afc-m23-accuses-congo-burundi-forces-of-deliberate-ceasefire-violations-in\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC\/M23 accuses Congo, Burundi forces of deliberate ceasefire violations in Walikale"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a statement released on Thursday, AFC\/M23 expressed \u201cprofound concern\u201d over what it described as deliberate attacks by the Kinshasa regime, singling out the occupation of Walikale town by coalition forces as a breach of goodwill and a direct violation of the truce.<\/p>\n

According to the rebel group, forces affiliated with the DRC government, including the FARDC, FDLR, Mai-Mai\/Wazalendo militia, and Burundi\u2019s National Defense Forces, looted Walikale after AFC\/M23 repositioned its troops as a gesture of commitment to the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis occupation was not only an act of aggression but a betrayal of our efforts to de-escalate the situation,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n

The rebel alliance added that heavy attacks were also launched in other areas of North and South Kivu, including Masisi, Walungu, and surrounding regions.<\/p>\n

The communiqu\u00e9 further alleged a targeted campaign against Banyamulenge civilians in Minembwe, reporting that between April 8 and 10, coordinated attacks from areas known as \u201cPoint Zero\u201d and \u201cBilalombili\u201d endangered the local population in Mikenke.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were not random skirmishes,\u201d AFC\/M23 claimed, describing them as attacks \u201cof genocidal character\u201d allegedly launched from Rugezi and involving mass destruction, looting, and violence against unarmed civilians in areas such as Kivumu and Gahwera.<\/p>\n

Despite these accusations, the group reaffirmed its commitment to a peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict, stating that it remains determined to \u201cprotect civilians and neutralise any threat at its source.\u201d<\/p>\n

AFC\/M23, which controls large swathes of eastern DRC, announced last month that it would withdraw from the town of Walikale to facilitate the implementation of a ceasefire aimed at paving the way for direct talks with President Felix Tshisekedi’s administration.<\/p>\n

Direct talks between the two sides, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, April 9, were postponed indefinitely amid rebel pressure for Kinshasa to agree to six preconditions before any meaningful negotiations could proceed.<\/p>\n

The demands include a public declaration from President Tshisekedi affirming his commitment to direct talks, the repeal of restrictive parliamentary resolutions, the cancellation of death sentences and arrest warrants for AFC\/M23 leaders, the release of alleged sympathisers detained based on ethnicity or association, and an end to hate speech and discriminatory practices targeting Swahili and Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese. <\/p>\n

The rebels also insist on a formal bilateral ceasefire agreement being signed before any negotiations proceed.<\/p>\n

\"AFC\/M23,<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC\/M23 rebel group has accused the coalition forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi of systematically violating a ceasefire agreement through renewed military offensives and human rights abuses in Walikale and other parts of eastern Congo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000085430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000085430,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/436t35jbmzkd5lzs74pgate3wi.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/436t35jbmzkd5lzs74pgate3wi.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/436t35jbmzkd5lzs74pgate3wi.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/436t35jbmzkd5lzs74pgate3wi.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/436t35jbmzkd5lzs74pgate3wi.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/436t35jbmzkd5lzs74pgate3wi.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000085430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53829"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53829"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}