SALON

Monday, Dec 3, 2012 1:30 PM UTC

Congo rebels stake out positions near Goma

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Congo rebels stake out positions near GomaPolice Nationale du Congo (PNC) officers gather at a stadium to be briefed by commanders, in Goma, eastern Congo, Monday Dec. 3, 2012. Rebels, who finally withdrew from this regional capital over the weekend, said they are waiting for a 48-hour deadline to expire on Monday afternoon, before deciding if they will take back the city. After a nearly two-week occupation, the M23 rebel group agreed to leave Goma on the condition that Congo's government enters into negotiations with them by 2 p.m. Monday. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)(Credit: AP)

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Rebels known to be backed by Rwanda remained perilously close to the major population center of Goma, with their fighters on Monday taking positions just 3 kilometers (1.6 miles) away from the provincial capital as their leaders said they were waiting for a 48-hour deadline to expire.

After a nearly two-week occupation, the M23 rebel group agreed to leave Goma over the weekend under intense international pressure, including fresh sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. They agreed to retreat to 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the city on the condition that Congo’s government enter into negotiations over their grievances no later than 2 p.m. local time on Monday. The rebels are threatening to retake the city if Congo fails to meet their demands.

As the deadline expired, journalists saw a column of rebel fighters walking to elevated positions overlooking the city, no more than a few kilometers outside the Goma city limit. Others were building a tent on a western hill. Some in groups of three took positions under the shade of trees along the road leading north from Goma.

“We gave Kinshasa a 48-hour deadline, and we are now waiting for these 48 hours to expire,” said rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama, when reached by telephone shortly before the deadline passed. “You should call Congo and ask them what they plan to do. They have not yet contacted us. And we are waiting to see what happens, before pronouncing ourselves.”

Despite the rebels’ retreat from Goma, which was a prerequisite set by the Congolese government for negotiations, President Joseph Kabila has not yet made clear if the government will negotiate. On Sunday, government spokesman Lambert Mende said the president would listen to M23′s grievances and then give them an answer about negotiations.

On Monday as the ultimatum neared its end, Mende could not immediately be reached for comment, with an aide saying he was in a meeting.

In recent weeks, the enormous, jungle-covered nation of Congo, whose capital is over 1,000 miles away from this provincial eastern city, inched closer to war its smaller, but more developed neighbor, Rwanda, which is accused of arming the M23 rebels, as well as of sending soldiers across the border.

The rebels claim to be fighting for the better implementation of a March 23, 2009 peace accord, which saw them integrated into the national army. Analysts, including a United Nations Group of Experts, say that the real reason for the rebellion is Rwanda’s desire to annex territory in the mineral-rich mountains at the border between the two countries.

Congo’s Interior Minister Richard Muyej, speaking to reporters in Goma, said that his team was ready to negotiate with M23 on the basis of the 2009 accords. He also said that they are working hard to fill the power vacuum that was left by the rebels’ departure.

“We shall work very hard to re-establish the authority of the state as fast as possible.”

At the same time, Congolese troops, who had gathered in the town of Minova, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Goma, did not appear to be moving any closer to Goma. The city of Goma was being patrolled by Congolese police.

Residents whose lives were upended two weeks ago when rebels invaded the town on Nov. 20, tried their best to go about their lives.

Most shops had re-opened, as the city of 1 million was slowly trying to get back to normal despite uncertainty about what will happen in coming hours. A woman selling secondhand clothes at the Virunga market said she had no choice.

“We’re not going to wait forever, are we?” said Anette Murkendiwa. “I need to feed my children.”

___

Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press photographer contributed to this report from Goma, Congo.

More By Melanie Gouby And Rukmini Callimachi.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations