The Democratic Republic of Congo accused Rwanda of carrying out a drone attack that damaged a civilian plane at the airport in the strategic eastern city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province.
Fighting has broken out in recent days around the town of Sake, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Goma, between M23 rebels – who Kinshasa says are backed by Kigali – and Congolese government forces.
“On the night of Friday to Saturday, at 2 a.m. local time, a drone attack occurred by the Rwandan army,” said Lt. Col. Guillaume Ndjike Kaito, army spokesman for North Kivu province. .
“It obviously came from the territory of Rwanda, violating the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he added in a video released by the governorate.
The drones “targeted aircraft of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” However, the military planes “were not hit,” he said, but “a civilian plane was hit and damaged.”
Rwanda's government did not immediately respond to the allegations.
An AFP correspondent and residents of Goma reported hearing two loud explosions at the time of the explosion. A security source told AFP of “two bombs” on Saturday and said experts were at the scene to check where they had been fired from.
Despite the bomb reports, national and international traffic proceeded normally, airport sources said.
'Escalation of violence'
Alain Uaykani, reporting for Al Jazeera from Goma on Saturday, said that if the drone attack targeted military vessels, as the army has said, it shows that the M23 rebels are capable of carrying out more advanced attacks than the Congolese government I could have waited.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations and Western countries have said Rwanda is supporting rebels in a bid to control vast mineral resources, an accusation Kigali has denied.
The rebels have conquered vast areas of North Kivu in the last two years.
According to a confidential UN document seen by AFP earlier this week, the Rwandan military is using sophisticated weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles, to support the M23.
A “suspected Rwanda Defense Forces mobile surface-to-air missile” was fired at a UN observation drone last Wednesday without hitting it, according to the report.
The UN Security Council this week expressed concern about the “escalation of violence” in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and condemned the M23 offensive near Goma.
Dozens of soldiers and civilians have reportedly been killed or wounded in fighting over the past ten days.
'A new front'
The latest fighting has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee from neighboring cities to Goma, which lies between Lake Kivu and the border with Rwanda and is virtually isolated from the country's interior.
“The security situation remains very volatile in the Sake area, where for several days the government forces with their allies have been trying to expel the M23 rebels from several mountains that they occupied around this strategic city at the gates of Goma” , Uaykani reported from Goma.
“As the government coalition tries to block the advance of the rebels in this part of Sake, since this morning security sources reported that the rebels are also fighting with the DRC army in the village of Kashuga, in the territory of Rutshuru, in the territory boundary with Walikale,” Uaykani reported.
He said the fighting in this part of the country is important for the rebels as it has opened “a new front” for Walikale, which has never before been affected by the years-long conflict.
“It is also very significant because it is in this territory where several international companies with the greatest mining activity in the region are based. For a week now, several peripheral neighborhoods of Goma have already been the target of bombs, launched by the M23 according to the authorities,” he added.
With multiple diplomatic efforts failing to quell the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the continent's leaders are expected to discuss the conflict at the 37th African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this weekend. week.
