M23 rebels over the past weekend captured the key town of Masisi in one of the five main territories of eastern DR Congo’s North Kivu Province which spans approximately 59,483 square kilometres. Masisi town is the capital of Masisi territory. It is located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma. Earlier last week, the rebels captured the nearby town of Katale and, according to media reports, the rebels continue to advance, seizing swathes of territory from a vast government coalition comprising local Wazalendo militia, European mercenaries, Burundian army forces, and troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). ALSO READ: Who are the M23 rebels in DR Congo? The M23 rebellion was created on May 6, 2013, after the Congolese government declined to implement a comprehensive peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009. M23 is now part of a larger coalition Congo River Alliance (AFC) created in December 2023 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, by Corneille Nangaa, the former president of the Congolese electoral commission, CENI. ALSO READ: Thabo Mbeki: Implementing Sun City Agreement, disarming FDLR only way to solve DR Congo crisis The rebels’ latest capture of territory comes three weeks after the abrupt cancellation of an earlier proposed Luanda meeting of President Paul Kagame and his counterparts Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo and João Lourenço of Angola. ALSO READ: Well-paid mercenaries in DR Congo causing ‘jealousy’ within FARDC ranks Before the presidents’ meeting was postponed, mid last December, their foreign ministers had faced a deadlock during negotiations in the Angolan capital. The seventh ministerial meeting was meant review a draft agreement that would be signed by the Presidents the next day, but they hit an impasse after Congolese foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner surprised her counterparts Olivier Nduhungirehe of Rwanda and Tete Antonio of Angola by refusing to approve a proposal on direct dialogue between her government and M23 rebels. ALSO READ: M23 rebels seize more territory in eastern DR Congo Various initiatives have failed to end the conflict, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and forced tens of thousands more to flee to neighbouring countries. In an interview with radio Top Congo during his visit to Belgium, last August, Tshisekedi ruled out any possibility of peace talks with M23. ALSO READ: Unravelling the complicity and deception in DR Congo “Never, never ever, as long as I am President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, will I have in front of me the delegation of the M23 or the AFC ... to negotiate, never,” Tshisekedi said. North Kivu Province which has, for decades, been confronted with security challenges stemming largely from poor governance in Kinshasa and genocide ideology comprises three cities—Goma, Butembo, and Beni—and five main territories: Beni, Lubero, Masisi, Rutshuru, and Walikale. ALSO READ: Belgian lawyer on why genocide ideology doesn’t dissolve three decades after dispersion of genocidaires For the past three decades, the province has been home to FDLR, a UN-sanctioned militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, which continues to destabilize the region especially by spreading an anti-Tutsi genocidal ideology and persecuting Congolese Tutsi communities.
