M23 rebels over the weekend captured the key town of Masisi in one of the five main territories of eastern DR Congo’s North Kivu Province. Masisi town is the capital of Masisi territory, located about 80 kilometres north of the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma.
Earlier last week, the rebels captured the nearby town of Katale and, according to media reports, the rebels continued to advance, seizing swathes of territory from a vast government coalition.
The coalition comprises local Wazalendo militia, European mercenaries, Burundian army forces and troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The M23 rebellion was created on May 6, 2013, after the Congolese government declined to implement a comprehensive peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009.
M23 is now part of a larger coalition Congo River Alliance (AFC) created in December 2023 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, by the former president of the Congolese electoral commission, Corneille Nangaa.
The rebels’ latest capture of territory comes three weeks after the abrupt cancellation of an earlier proposed Luanda meeting of President Paul Kagame and his counterparts, Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo and João Lourenço of Angola.
