M23 soldiers leave Rumangabo camp after the meeting between EACRF officials and M23 rebels in eastern DRC on 6 January 2023. (Guerchom Ndebo/AFP)

• Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have seized a town in the DRC’s east amid the ongoing violence in the region.
• The town is home to more than 60 000 people and tens of thousands of people have fled there in recent months.
• Other nearby towns have also been seized by M23, according to officials and security sources.

The Rwandan-backed M23 have seized a strategic town in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile east, an official told AFP Saturday, as surrounding areas also fell into the hands of the rebels.

The town of Kanyabayonga lies on the northern front of the conflict in the North Kivu province, which has been rocked by violence since 2021 when the M23 (March 23 Movement) resumed its armed campaign in the region.

The town is home to more than 60 000 people and tens of thousands of people have fled there in recent months, driven from their homes by the advance of the rebels.

“Kanyabayonga has been in the hands of the M23 since Friday evening,” the local administrative official said under condition of anonymity.

The town is considered a pathway to Butembo and Beni in the north, strongholds of the Nande tribe and major commercial centres.

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The town is in the Lubero territory, the fourth territory in the North Kivu province that the group has entered after Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi.

The administrative official said that the population in Kanyabayonga “no longer have anywhere to go, it is total desolation, the population is tired”.

“We are seeing an influx of displaced people from Miriki, Kirumba and Luofu towards the North,” military administrator of the Lubero territory Colonel Alain Kiwewa said.

“It is a situation that worries us,” he added.

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Other nearby towns have been seized by M23, according to officials and security sources.

The M23 have taken control of a town called Kanya some 17 kilometres north of Kanyabayonga, an administrative official told AFP Saturday, adding that one man was killed when a shell fell on their house.

A journalist told AFP that she had seen four dead bodies in the town, two soldiers and two civilians, although a youth leader in the town described the situation as calm “for the moment”.

During a meeting on Saturday the rebels told residents of Kayna that they had come to the town to keep them safe, one civil society leader said.

‘Bullets rang out’

Kayna witnessed fighting overnight, with a youth leader saying that those who had fled to the town from Kanyabayonga “spent the night under the stars”.

“All night bullets rang out,” he said. “We no longer know which saint to turn to.”

The village of Luofu, which is situated some 18 kilometres from Kanyabayonga, has also come under control of the rebels.

“Luofu since 9 am has come under the control of the M23,” a security source who wished to remain anonymous told AFP over the telephone, adding that there are more than 5 000 households there.

In Kirumba, some 25 kilometres from Kanyabayonga, the population is in a “state of panic”, one civil society leader said on condition of anonymity.

He added:

The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been the scene of violence for 30 years by armed groups, both local and foreign-based, going back to regional wars of the 1990s.

Rwanda denies that it backs the M23.

The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office said in its monthly report on Friday that fighting in the area was causing many civilians to be displaced.

“Humanitarian organisations providing support to the displaced have suspended their operations for security reasons,” it said.