Rwanda-backed rebels declare ceasefire after deadly capture of Democratic Republic of Congo city
Rwanda-backed rebels who seized a major city in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have declared a unilateral ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.
The M23 rebel group announced on Monday that the ceasefire would come into effect on Tuesday.
It came just under a week after the rebels completed their three-day capture of Goma – the regional capital of eastern DRC – after fierce battles with Congolese forces.
The UN health agency has said at least 900 people died during fighting in the days that followed, while Congo’s communications minister Patrick Muyaya on Monday more than 2,000 bodies are waiting to be buried in Goma.
The ceasefire announcement came after foreign ministers from G7 nations, including the UK, urged both sides in the conflict to return to negotiations.
In a statement on Monday, they called for a “rapid, safe and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians”.
The fighting in Goma forced hundreds of thousands of people who had been displaced by years of conflict to carry what remained of their belongings and flee again – with many pouring into nearby Rwanda.
Goma, home to two million people, is at the heart of a region home to trillions of dollars in mineral wealth and remains in rebel control despite the ceasefire announcement.
M23 rebels on the streets of Goma.
Pic: AP/Brian Inganga
Following the capture of the city, the Rwanda-backed rebels were said to be moving towards Bukavu in South Kivu, also in the east of the country.
However, they appeared to be held up by Congolese troops that were supported by the army from neighbouring country Burundi.
M23 had also expressed a desire to march to DRC’s capital Kinshasa before the rebel group’s spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, said on Monday: “It must be made clear that we have no intention of capturing Bukavu or other areas.
“However, we reiterate our commitment to protecting and defending the civilian population and our positions.”
The M23 group cited “humanitarian reasons” for the ceasefire.
M23 rebels patrol the streets of Goma this week.
Pic: AP/Brian Inganga
There was no immediate comment from Congo’s government after it was declared.
The rebels’ announcement came ahead of a joint summit this week by regional blocs for southern and eastern Africa, which had called for a ceasefire.
Kenya’s President William Ruto said the presidents of DRC and Rwanda would attend.
Congolese authorities have said they are open to talks to resolve the conflict, but that such a dialogue must be done within the context of previous peace agreements.
Rwanda and the rebels have accused the DR Congo government of defaulting on previous deals.
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Eyewitness account after rebels take key city
People rush to shop in downtown Goma after the M23 rebels advanced into the city. Pic: AP
The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from Rwanda, according to UN experts, far more than in 2012 when they first briefly captured Goma then withdrew after international pressure.
They are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups vying for control in DRC’s volatile eastern borderlands, which hold vast deposits of minerals critical to much of the world’s technology.
M23 is also the latest in a long line of Rwandan-supported rebel movements to emerge in eastern DR Congo following two successive wars stemming from Rwanda’s genocide more than 30 years ago.
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Dozens of mercenaries in DRC sent to Rwanda by M23 rebels
During the atrocity in 1994, members of Rwanda’s majority Hutu population went on the rampage, murdering Tutsis and those who tried to protect them in a massacre that lasted more than 100 days.
M23 now says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in DRC, whom Rwanda claims are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the genocide.
Many Hutus fled to DRC after the massacre and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia group.
Rwanda said the group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which it denies.
World
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points – as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high
At least 798 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed while receiving aid in the past six weeks – while acute malnutrition is said to have reached an all-time high.
The UN human rights office said 615 of the deaths – between 27 May and 7 July – were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Its figures are based on a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries, and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), its partners on the ground, and Hamas-run health authorities.
Aid agency Project Hope said on Thursday that 10 children were among at least 15 people killed as they waited for its clinic in Deir al Balah to open.
Ten children were reportedly killed when Israel attacked near a clinic on Thursday. Pic: AP
The GHF has claimed the UN figures are “false and misleading” and has repeatedly denied any violence at or around its sites.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said two of its sites were seeing their worst-ever levels of severe malnutrition.
Cases at its Gaza City clinic are said to have tripled from 293 in May to 983 in early July.
“Over 700 pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children are now receiving emergency nutritional care,” MSF said.
The humanitarian medical charity said food prices were at extreme levels, with sugar at $766 (£567) per kilo and flour $30 (£22) per kilo, and many families surviving on one meal of rice or lentils a day.
It’s a major concern for the estimated 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, who risk miscarriage, stillbirth and malnourished infants because of the shortages.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the coastal territory.
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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip.
The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.
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Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
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In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
At least 798 people in Gaza have been killed while receiving aid in six weeks, the UN human rights office has said.
A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 615 of the killings were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
The office said its figures are based on numbers from a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as NGOs, its partners on the ground and the Hamas-run health authorities.
The GHF has claimed the figures are “false and misleading”. It has repeatedly denied there has been any violence at or around its sites.
The organisation began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the enclave.
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what they say is a suspicious manner.
It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies falling into the hands of militants.
Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In response, a GHF spokesperson told the Reuters news agency: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
Ten children and two women are among at least 15 killed in an airstrike near a Gaza health clinic, according to an aid organisation.
Project Hope said it happened this morning near Altayara Junction, in Deir al Balah, as patients waited for the clinic to open.
The organisation’s president called it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza“.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” added the group’s project manager, Dr Mithqal Abutaha.
“It was a horrific scene. People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death.”
Operations at the clinic – which provides a range of health and maternity services – have been suspended.
Some of the children were reportedly waiting to receive nutritional supplements, necessary due to the dire shortage of food being allowed into Gaza.
Israel‘s military is investigating and said it was targeting a militant who took part in the 7 October terror attack.
“The IDF [Israel Defence Force] regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible,” added.
The deaths come as an agreement over a 60-day truce hangs in the balance – with President Trump cautiously saying it could happen “this week, or next week”.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital reported another 21 deaths in airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the nearby coastal area of Muwasi.
It said three children and their mother were among the dead.
Israel said its troops have been dismantling more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites in Khan Younis over the past week, including missile launch sites, weapons storage facilities and a 500m tunnel.
On Wednesday, a soldier was shot dead when militants burst out of a tunnel and tried to abduct him, the military added.
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Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks – one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months.
A 22-year-old Israeli man was also killed on Thursday by two attackers in a supermarket in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Magen David Adom emergency service.
People on site reportedly shot and killed the attackers but information on their identity has so far not been released.
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IDF chief says conditions ‘created’ for Gaza ceasefire
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Lack of food and water ‘lethal’ for Gaza children
Negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire are ongoing and President Trump reportedly put “heavy” pressure on Israel’s leader, who visited the US this week.
A major sticking point is said to be the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.
However, Sky News understands the Israeli government thinks the chances of a permanent truce are “questionable”.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – more than half are women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The war began in October 2023 after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 251 others.
Some of them remain In Gaza and are a crucial part of ceasefire negotiations, which also include a planned surge in humanitarian aid into the strip.
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