Rwandan flights halted in the DRC due to alleged rebel backing.

 By RTN  Newsdesk

  RTN-KAMPALA, UGANDA- Rwandan flights have been halted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) due to alleged rebel backing.

The Rwandan government has been accused of assisting a resurgent M23 rebel group near their shared eastern border by the Democratic Republic of Congo.
RwandAir flights to three DRC cities have been canceled as a result of the action. 

The DRC suspended RwandAir flights to the nation on Saturday, accusing Rwanda's government of backing the M23 rebel group, which has resumed its onslaught near their shared border.

Rwanda's ambassador was called by the Kinshasa government to voice Rwanda's dissatisfaction of its neighbor's "recidivist attitude."

The decision was made after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi attended an unprecedented national security meeting on Friday.

RwandAir, Rwanda's flag carrier, announced in a statement that all flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Goma will be canceled "with immediate effect." 

Kinshasa stated that it was reacting to a new round of violence by M23 in the country's east, which erupted last month after almost a decade of relative calm.

Last week, the gang got as near as 20 kilometers (12 miles) to Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, and briefly took the army's largest facility in the area.

The Congolese government claims to have discovered military equipment purportedly provided by Rwanda, as well as testimonials from local citizens and soldiers, all of which point to a relationship between M23 and its neighbor. 

"A warning was sent to Rwandans whose behavior threatens the peace process... where all armed factions, except the M23, are committed to the route to peace," Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya stated.

M23 has been labeled a terrorist organization by the government, according to Muyaya, and will be excluded from peace talks taking place in Kenya with armed groups engaged in eastern DRC.

Kinshasa also accuses Kigali of sabotaging the East African Community's (EAC) peace process, which is being mediated by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who now holds the rotating presidency.

Rwanda denies assisting the insurgents, and relations between the two nations have deteriorated dramatically in the last month. 

Rwanda accused the Democratic Republic of Congo of supporting another rebel group that kidnapped two of its soldiers along the shared border this week.

In a statement, the RDF said, "We urge on authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo who work closely with these murderous armed organizations to ensure the release of the RDF soldiers."

It was unclear whether the apparent kidnapping had anything to do with the two countries' growing relations.

Former Congolese army troops who established a rebel group in 2012 created the M23 movement.

M23 is primarily a Congolese Tutsi militia, but it is one among more than 120 armed militias active in eastern DRC, many of which are remnants of regional wars dating back over two decades. 

Many of the rebel factions, according to the US, want control of the country's valuable natural resources, which include major amounts of copper, cobalt, gold, and diamonds.

The Congolese army destroyed M23's last rebellion in 2013, after the rebel organization temporarily took control of the province capital Goma a few months before.

Rwanda was also accused of helping M23 by Congolese and UN investigators during the group's last attack.

When the rebels started fighting this month, they accused the Congolese government of breaking a 2009 agreement that called for the militants to be integrated into the army.

According to the UN, recent confrontations between the military and M23 rebels in eastern DRC have displaced 72,000 people. 

According to a video uploaded on social media this week, a high-ranking police officer in the east ordered Goma citizens to prepare to defend themselves against M23 with machetes.

M23 released a statement calling calls for locals to use violence "irresponsible."

It urged the UN peacekeeping mission and the DRC government to end the deadly rhetoric, citing the murder of more than half a million ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.

The group also accused the DRC military of carrying out "extrajudicial executions of its own soldiers for ethnicity," claiming that a colonel was executed earlier this week on the erroneous allegation of being a Tutsi. 

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES