“A massive ground attack in Rafah would lead to (an) epic humanitarian disaster and pull the plug on our efforts to support people as famine looms,” Guterres said during a visit to Nairobi, adding that the situation in the southern Gaza city was “on a knife’s edge”. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
UN chief Antonio Guterres called Sunday on Rwandan forces to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of Congo and halt support for M23 fighters advancing on the key Congolese city of Goma.
Guterres “reiterates his strongest condemnation of the M23 armed group’s ongoing offensive and advances towards Goma in North Kivu with the support of the Rwanda Defence Forces,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“He calls on the M23 to immediately cease all hostile actions and withdraw from occupied areas. He further calls on the Rwanda Defence Forces to cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory,” Dujarric said.
The UN chief had previously referred to a UN experts’ report citing Kigali’s backing of the M23 fighters, an anti-government group warring against the Congolese army in the east.
But he had not explicitly called on Rwandan forces to cease their support or withdraw from DRC territory.
“The Secretary-General reminds all parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law,” the statement said Sunday.
“He recalls that attacks against United Nations personnel may constitute a war crime,” said Dujarric, after three peacekeepers in eastern DRC have been killed in the last 48 hours.
The M23, also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army, has tightened its grip surrounding Goma in violence that has forced some 230,000 to flee their homes.
Eastern DRC has vast mining resources and is a complex landscape of rival armed militias which has seen violence ebb and flow since the 1990s.
