Congo’s military operations have long been met with complaints. Your smartphone is also a factor

An insurgency led by M23 rebels in eastern Congo has reached the city of Goma, worsening the humanitarian crisis in a region wracked by two devastating wars between 1996 and 2003.

The rebel alliance, led by an ethnic Tutsi leadership, said it had captured the lakeside city, a major hub for more than two million people, displaced people and aid groups on the border with Rwanda.

Guns ranging from heavy artillery fire and fast rats to a deep rap-a-tat-a-tat tat-tat can be seen in a video from Goma airport, posted on social media in the past few hours and confirmed by Reuters, which shows the airport working showed unknown armed men.

The Western European-sized Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to an officially recognized 100 million people, and the UN has expressed concern the M23 offensive risks provoking a wider regional war.

Here’s what you need to know:

Who are the rebels?

M23, as of March 23, 2009, was signed by the Congolese Government and the former Tutsi-led rebel group, the National Congress, in defense of the people. M23 consists of fighters from both the original group and defectors from the Congolese Military and Police.

The group did not wait long to blame the Congolese government for not living up to the peace agreement by fully integrating KongoLese Tutsis into its army and leadership. By 2012, it had taken control of Goma, which retreated after further negotiations with the government.

In 2022, the current rebellion began, and last year, “M23” fought for territorial gains. The rebels claimed control of MASisi, about 80 kilometers north of Goma.

The rebel gains halted the planned withdrawal last month of Monusco, the UN peacekeeping force that first put boots on the ground in the country in 2000.

In 2023, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called for the peacekeepers to be fast-tracked. Their presence has led to increasingly popular and even misguided protests among some easterners that they are not adequately protecting enough civilians from militia violence.

11,000 peacekeepers and 1,750 civilians in Congo, the UN mission has been extended for a long time since December of this year.

M23 has clashed with some political groups, including one led by a former official of the electoral commission of Kornoi, including a former official of the Congolese electoral commission, including a former official of the electoral commission in criticism of TSHisekedi Heralded by the US State Department In the first presidential administration of Donald Trump. Nangaa himself was authorized by the United States to embezzle funds intended for the election of Washington.

The extent of Nangaa’s support for the Union Fleuve Congo (AFC), which sees the M23 rebels as its military wing, is difficult to gauge, with UN experts saying in December that the number of armed factions alongside them has increased.

“Our target is neither Goma nor Bukavu, but Kinshasa (the capital), the source of all problems,” he said. “In the Congo, we have a weak situation or we have a non-state. Where all the armed groups have emerged, because we want to create a state so that there is no state.”

Rwanda’s role

Paul Kagame, the de facto leader of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, has been the de facto leader of Rwanda since its one Tutsi, close to a million Tutsi and Middle Hutus. Although the regime was accused of human rights, the opposition of the opposition in local and unfair elections, Western countries often tolerated the autocracy.

In addition to its power to consolidate power at home, Rwanda under Kagama has a long history of intervention within the Congo. Rwanda and Uganda claimed self-defense against local militia groups in 1996 and 1998.

The Congolese government, UN officials and Western powers, including the United States, have accused Congo’s next-door neighbor Rwanda of supporting M23 by deploying thousands of troops and heavy weapons on Congolese soil.

In 2022, a report by a UN panel of experts presented “solid evidence” that Rwandan troops were fighting alongside M23 rebels.

How rebels make money

Several UN Security Council members echoed the sentiment of Russia’s representative in the body, Vasily Nebenzia, at an emergency meeting on the spiraling situation on Sunday.

“We are convinced that the struggle to gain access to strategically important Congolese minerals is one of the reasons why the crisis we are witnessing now continues,” Nebenzia said.

Congo’s abundant mineral supplies have long been coveted by Chinese and Western companies as well as armed groups. The central African nation has several minerals that are part of the supply chains for electric vehicles, smartphones and computers.

M23 has been controlling Rubaya’s Coltan-Mining District for over a year. This made it possible to produce $800,000 a month with a single production tax, according to the UN.

The group has expanded into new territories in recent weeks, where it has scope to generate more mining revenue. These include an eastern mining area rich in gold, tourmaline and tin, tantalum and tungsten, tantalum and tungsten – 3t minerals used in computers and mobile phones.

Technology manufacturers are scrutinized to ensure that the metals used in their products do not originate from conflict zones such as Eastern Congo. Apple has denied claims of cobalt and other conflict minerals in the past, and it acquired it in December It was reported that he told the suppliers Stop obtaining tin, tonsal, tungsten and gold from Congo and Rwanda.

Men, women and children often worked under toxic conditions in Congolese mines, and rebels doubled the wages of rivals to persuade them to work in Rubaya.

The M23’s control of transport routes from Rubaya to Rwanda, rubaya minerals mixed with Rwandan production, contaminates a Coltan supply chain, a panel of UN Security Council experts said in a release earlier this month.