Africa

Africa

Congo's M23 rebels complete withdrawal from Goma

02 December 2012 03:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The March 23 movement (M23) rebels have withdrawn from the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized Goma on November 20 after United Nations peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city of one million people, which is the capital of North Kivu province.

On Saturday, about 300 fighters drove out of the city in a convoy of looted trucks. On Friday, the rebels withdrew from the town of Sake, located about 30 kilometers west of Goma.

Ugandan Brigadier Jeffrey Muheesi, who is part of a mission sent by the leaders of countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa to oversee the rebel retreat, said on Saturday that the rebels' withdrawal from Goma was complete.

"They have pulled out of Sake and Goma, and now Congolese government policemen are controlling the central bank, the governor's office, and the border post," he said from the outskirts of Goma.

However, the retreat may be temporary, since the military commander of the M23 rebels has said they now want to negotiate with the government in Kinshasa within two days.

"Now we are waiting for the negotiations, within 48 hours," said Brigadier General Sultani Makenga as he left Goma along with his heavily-armed men.

He added that M23 would wait for a ceasefire to be signed.

"If the government wants, we will come back," Makenga stated, adding that they would do so through negotiations, or force if needed.

The M23 rebels have pledged to withdraw to 20 kilometers outside Goma under a deal brokered by the leaders of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

"We are happy that they are leaving, they have made us suffer," said a 25-year-old Goma resident.

"They have stolen so much, vehicles, ammunition, everything," she added.

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.

Since early May, over 750,000 people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. Most of them have resettled inside Congo, but tens of thousands have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead