Congo, Rwanda accuse each other of fresh cross-border rocket strikes
(Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda accused one another of firing rockets throughout their shared border on Friday, together with a strike that killed two Congolese kids, a spokesperson for the Congolese military mentioned.
The alleged assaults are a part of an escalating dispute between the Central African neighbours linked to a recent offensive by the M23 insurgent group that Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting.
The spokesman for the Congolese Military within the japanese North Kivu province mentioned troops had been battling M23 rebels in a mountain space near the border with Rwanda and Uganda, when 5 rockets fired from Rwanda landed in Congolese territory away from the realm of preventing.
“We recorded two kids killed and one significantly wounded and likewise a college which was completely broken,” spokesperson Guillaume Ndjike Kaiko mentioned.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the report. The Rwandan authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Rwandan Defence Ministry in the meantime accused Congolese forces of firing two 122mm calibre rockets into Rwanda from the Bunagana space, the place they have been preventing M23 rebels.
“There have been no casualties however the native inhabitants is terrified,” it mentioned in a press release.
Kaiko denied the accusation and mentioned Congolese forces had not been utilizing rockets of that calibre within the space.
The dispute centres on Congo’s accusation that Rwanda is actively supporting M23, which has been waging its most sustained offensive in Congo’s japanese borderlands since capturing huge swathes of territory in 2012-2013.
Rwanda denies this and in flip accuses Congo of preventing alongside the FDLR, an armed group run by ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after collaborating within the 1994 genocide.
It has accused Congolese forces of firing rockets throughout the border in two earlier incidents in March and Could.
(Reporting by Djaffar Al Katanty; Further reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana in Kigali; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Modifying by Alex Richardson)
