RUMANGABO, Congo - Congolese soldiers, who just one year ago abandoned their posts and fled in the face of an advancing rebel army, succeeded Monday in taking back a fifth rebel-held town, in what appears to be a turning point in the conflict.
The civilian population, which reportedly suffered grave abuses under the rebels, poured into the streets to welcome the soldiers, running alongside their tanks. Women threw flowers. Men picked palm leaves off nearby trees and waved them.
“I confirm that we have just taken the city of Rumangabo,” said Lt. Col. Olivier Hamuli, a Congolese military spokesman.
Over the weekend, Congolese soldiers took back Kiwanja, Rutshuru, Buhumba and Kibumba. Of the five, Rumangabo is the most important militarily because it is home to one of the largest military camps in Congo’s unsettled east.
The soldiers faced no resistance as they headed into Rumangabo, according to an Associated Press reporter accompanying the troops. From there they advanced toward the camp, which dates to the time of ex-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and was captured about a year ago by the M23 rebels, who used it to train their recruits.
The Congolese army reached the camp around noon,secured the abandoned stockpile of weapons and posted guards.
The Congolese government will quickly restore administration, said Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu province. “I confirm the fall of Rumangabo,” Paluku said. “We have just held two meetings in order to discuss how to uplift the population … and we are announcing the restoration of the civil service within the next 24 hours.”
The M23 rebels are just the latest to take over a swath of the country’s volatile east. Their members belonged to a now-defunct rebel army that agreed in March 2009 to join the national army in return for abandoning the conflict. Those same soldiers mutinied in 2012, claiming that the Congolese army had not fulfilled its promises under their accord.
Fighting between the two sides has flared and ebbed throughout the past year, each time ending with stalled peace talks hosted in Kampala, the capital of neighboring Uganda.
Former U.S. Sen. Russell Feingold, the United States’ special envoy for the Great Lakes and Congo, told reporters in Paris after a trip to the region that the two sides need to return to the negotiating table.
“My belief and the belief of the U.S. government and the larger international community is that this is not a situation for a military solution,” he said. “Our belief is that the best thing now is to have the fighting stop so in the next few days an agreement in Kampala can be finalized.” Information for this article was contributed by Rukmini Callimachi, Peter James Spielmann and Greg Keller of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/29/2013