{"id":55000,"date":"2025-07-24T11:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T11:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/afc-m23-accuses-kinshasa-of-escalating-violence-despite-peace-deal-declaration\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:53:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:53:44","slug":"afc-m23-accuses-kinshasa-of-escalating-violence-despite-peace-deal-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/afc-m23-accuses-kinshasa-of-escalating-violence-despite-peace-deal-declaration\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC\/M23 accuses Kinshasa of escalating violence despite peace deal declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a strongly worded statement, AFC\/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said that while regional and international actors are preoccupied with interpreting the recently signed declaration of principles, the Congolese government has continued large-scale troop deployments and military operations in civilian-populated areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile everyone is bogged down in interpreting the declaration of principles, the illegitimate Kinshasa regime relentlessly continues the deployment of its troops on all fronts, directs its heavy weapons toward densely populated areas, and intensifies offensives in the Uvira Highlands, targeting the Banyamulenge villages of Rurambo,\u201d Kanyuka said. <\/p>\n<p>Kanyuka added that the offensives, carried out by a coalition of Congolese government forces (FARDC), the FDLR, Ma\u00ef-Ma\u00ef Wazalendo, and the Burundi Defence Force, have killed numerous civilians and worsened an already dire humanitarian situation.<\/p>\n<p>The statement marks the latest in a series of accusations levelled by the AFC\/M23 movement against the Congolese government in the aftermath of peace initiatives launched in Washington and Doha. <\/p>\n<p>On July 17, the group publicly warned of continued military aggression from Kinshasa, claiming it undermines the peace efforts being pursued in Doha, Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>Two days earlier, the group had accused government forces of killing four of its members in what it described as a demonstration of \u201cwarlike intentions\u201d that contradicted the spirit of dialogue. <\/p>\n<p>At the time, Kanyuka reaffirmed the group\u2019s intention to protect civilians and eliminate threats \u201cat their source&#8221;, in a video shared on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will not yield to intimidation or the manoeuvres of an illegitimate and bloodthirsty regime, which sacrifices peace for the sake of its selfish interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Doha negotiations, led by Qatar, were brokered to end the fighting in eastern DRC, which earlier this year saw the rebels capture large swathes of territory, including the strategic cities of Goma and Bukavu. The rebels accuse President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi\u2019s administration of marginalising Kinyarwanda-speaking communities and practising poor governance.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-91388 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/kanyuka_lw-3b911-2.jpg\" alt=\"AFC\/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said that while regional and international actors are preoccupied with interpreting the recently signed declaration of principles, the Congolese government has continued large-scale troop deployments and military operations in civilian-populated areas.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AFC\/M23 rebel coalition has accused the government in Kinshasa of intensifying military offensives in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite recent peace declarations and ongoing negotiations aimed at ending the conflict in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000091389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55000","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":2000091389,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911logo.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kanyuka_lw-3b911logo.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55000","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=55000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000091389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55000"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55000"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}