‘We need peace’: M23 war displaces DRC residents yet again

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Denis Sebwage Rugemba sits on the side of a road that runs through the Bushagara camp on the outskirts of the Congolese town of Goma, surrounded by the scant possessions of others like him who have fled their homes.

There’s a gaudy orange T-shirt; a quilted jacket; a brightly colored skirt. The sun breaks brightly through white plastic tents; the heat is sweltering but there is no shade.

But Rugemba, 78, is impervious to the environment as he pulls away loose strings and mends holes, while in exile continuing a job he’s practiced for 50 years. The more clothes he repairs, the more likely he is to earn some money; of buying food.

He’s in between about 240,000 people sheltering in several camps – including Bushagara – around Goma, seeking refuge from the M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They represent only a third of the civilians uprooted since the M23 rebel group, active a decade ago, resurfaced in late 2021.

According to the Kivu Security Tracker, which tracks attacks in eastern DRC, where more than 120 armed groups are active, about 296 people are killed in clashes with the group since October 2021.

Neighboring Rwanda has been accused of supporting the group by a group of experts from the United Nations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the government of the DRC in Kinshasa, but Kigali and the rebels themselves have strongly denied the allegations.

Nevertheless, allegations of Rwandan support for M23 have sparked regional tensions, with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi calling for sanctions against Kigali in March.

Meanwhile, the militia currently controls a stretch of territory around Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, as Congolese troops, aided by a regional force that excludes Rwanda, attack them.

For Rebecca Kabuo, a youth activist with Lutte pour le Changement (Fight for Change) or LUCHA, it is crucial to remember the dignity of people affected by the ongoing conflict.

“Think about the deaths and not just the numbers,” she told Al Jazeera. “These are people, they are people.”

‘Going back in circles’

For those caught up in the conflict, displacement has become a repeat experience.

In 2006, Rugemba first fled his home in the Rutshuru district, 42 miles (68 km) north of Goma, amid fighting between the DRC army and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a group of rebel fighters that claim to protect Congolese Tutsi fighters. population.

Twenty-five of his relatives were killed. The others took shelter in a displaced persons camp not far from where Rugemba now resides and tried to make a living there.

His eldest child got married while he waited to return home. Friends prepared food and contributed money to buy beer. “At least it was a wedding,” he told Al Jazeera.

His mother died of an illness at an advanced age and was buried in the surrounding hills. In 2009, CNDP was integrated into the national army, so he returned to his village.

But the peace did not last.

Dissatisfied with their position in the Congolese army and claiming that government agreements had not been adhered to, ex-CNDP operatives launched the first M23 uprising in April 2012. They took their name from March 23, the date the treaty was signed.

Rugemba was at home during that war, lying on the floor of his wooden house to protect against gunfire. His memories of various battles have merged and become hazy in the intervening years, but one memory lingers: fear. He is concerned about his blood pressure and says he is startled by loud noises.

During the 2012 uprising, the M23 rebels advanced as far as Goma, parading past UN peacekeepers on their march to the city, holding them for 10 days. The 20-month-long insurgency came to an end in November 2013, when the army, reinforced by the UN, captured the last of M23’s fiefdoms and the remaining rebels announced their intention to finally stand down.

Once again Rugemba started to rebuild his life by tilling his fields and planting maize, beans and banana plants.

Life was quiet for a while, but the M23 returned in late 2021 due to the same longstanding historical tensions that had fueled previous uprisings, according to Onesphore Sematumba, a Great Lakes analyst at the Crisis Group.

“They still use practically the same discourse,” Sematumba said of the rebels, comparing current fighters to their predecessors in the first M23 uprising and to CNDP fighters. “All these years we go back in circles.”

Sematumba suggested that Rwandan support for the group may have been in response to competition between the countries of the region.

The latest M23 insurgency began the same month Tshisekedi signed a deal with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that would allow troops from Kampala to fight allied democratic forces in Beni in the DRC, while also allowing Uganda to build new roads in the region.

“Rwanda was not involved in any of these deals,” Sematumba said. “[President] Kagame got very angry about that.”

Life on the run

The rebels arrived in Rutshuru’s village of Rugemba late last year.

“Over there [was] shooting everywhere,” he said. This time, four of his relatives died in the gunfire. In the rush to leave, all he could save was his sewing machine. He wore it for the two-day trek to Goma across a road full of other people on the move.

The tailor was exhausted and famished when he reached town, his feet so swollen he had trouble moving. Now hunger has become a constant concern.

“Life here is very difficult,” Rugemba said. “There is not enough food because we are so often displaced.”

Elizabeth Kanyeshamba, 30, first fled M23 rebels more than a decade ago when they attacked her village in Masisi territory. She spent two years in a displaced place with her husband and children before returning home to a tentative calm.

“We could farm,” she said of that time. “Other people had their businesses and small shops.”

But a resurgent M23 captured their village in February.

Kanyeshamba fled into the hills with her youngest daughter, losing her husband and other children in the chaos. She moved from mountain town to mountain town, only reaching a place of displacement on the western edge of Goma after a week’s walking.

In the camp, built between sharp rock outcroppings, she was reunited with her husband and children. “It was like a miracle,” she said. “Everyone thought the other had died.”

But her happiness was tempered by tragedy when she learned that her mother had been killed trying to escape. “It’s sad,” she said bluntly. “We feel very bad and are very sorry that we have to run from the same people again.”

Peace talks, but no peace

Anger rises in the camp where Kanyeshamba lives, and in Goma.

Much anger has been directed at the United Nations peacekeeping mission, or MONUSCO, which has been active in the DRC for 20 years. Last year, protests demanding removal for failure to keep the peace turned deadly, when 50 protesters were injured and five died.

Troops from an East African Community force managed to secure areas formerly held by M23 in North Kivu, but also failed to inspire confidence.

In May, the Kenyan head of mission abruptly resigned, citing threats to his safety in a letter of resignation circulated on social media; the Kenyan military claimed the letter was a fake and that he was merely transferred to a household role.

Not long after, in a speech in Botswana, Tshisekedi accused East African forces of collaborating with M23 while welcoming the planned deployment of a replacement force from southern Africa.

Peace talks in Nairobi in December excluded M23, while armed groups present criticized the presence of foreign fighters. At the time, M23 separately signaled its willingness to step down, but still holds territory in Bunagana after announcing a withdrawal from Rutshuru in April.

“How can we have a sustainable and serious response if the most threatening group, the M23, is not part of this process?” asked Sematumba, the analyst.

Rugemba just wants to go home. “We hear that there are peace talks, but there are no results,” he told Al Jazeera. “We need peace so we can go back.”