The newly created Congo River Alliance (AFC) has asked DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi to stop killings of civilians in North Kivu province where a government-led coalition is fighting the M23 rebel group.

Corneille Nangaa, the rebel alliance coordinator and former electoral commission president, accused the Congolese army (FARDC) of indiscriminate bombings in populated areas in the east of the country.

The alliance, which was created on December 15 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, is made up of nine Congolese rebel groups including the M23.

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In a statement on Thursday, December 28, Nangaa said the alliance asked Tshisekedi "to definitively put an end to the widespread killings of innocent Congolese people through intensely indiscriminate and criminal bombings.”

He said the bombings were targeted at residents of the localities of Mushaki, Karuba, Kirolirwe and surrounding areas by using heavy artillery and fighter planes and FARDC drones, "causing the death of innocent people and the destruction of their homes.”

Nangaa said these actions amounted to war crimes.

"In the event of a repeat criminal offense, the AFC Forces will be responsible for neutralizing the enemy, putting them out of harm's way, definitively pacifying the country and ensuring the protection of citizens wishing to breathe democracy,” he said.

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Eastern DR Congo has been volatile for nearly 30 years and remains home to over 130 local and foreign armed groups.

For more than two decades Congolese Tutsi communities have been persecuted by armed groups such as the UN-sanctioned FDLR militia, whose founders are responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The FDLR is part of the government coalition fighting the M23.

The M23 has for months condemned the collaboration of the Congolese army and the FDRL, which is accused of spreading genocide ideology in eastern DR Congo.

‘Sham election’

Nangaa said "a better, pacified and reconciled Congo is possible without [Tshisekedi],” who ran for re-election on December 20, seeking a second five-year term.

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Opposition candidates have complained of irregularities in the presidential election, whose results are due to be announced on December 31.

Moise Katumbi, Tshisekedi’s main challenger, called it a "sham election” organised by the electoral commission.

Katumbi denounced the December 27 "shooting and indiscriminate violence” by the police as they suppressed a protest march by supporters of Martin Fayulu, another candidate.

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As vote counting continues, with Tshisekedi taking the lead, Nangaa said the Congo River Alliance expressed solidarity with various candidates and condemned what he called a "spectacle of open fraud [that] is further pushing the country into a serious crisis of legitimacy.”

"The AFC invites the political class, leaders of civil society, young people, women and members of the Congolese diaspora, to courageously join its action in order to urgently evacuate [Tshisekedi] and plan together the organization of consensual, peaceful, credible and transparent elections,” he said.