Fresh clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo sent hundreds of civilians scrambling across the border into Rwanda on Friday, as the M23 militia fought Congolese troops and Burundian soldiers for control of the frontier town of Kamanyola\u2014just 24 hours after Congolese and Rwandan leaders signed a US-brokered peace accord in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detonations rattled buildings from dawn, an AFP reporter observed from Bugarama, about 2km inside Rwanda, while lines of families crossed under police watch. \u201cThe bombs were exploding above the houses,\u201d said Immaculee Antoinette, who fled Ruhumba near Kamanyola. \u201cWe were asked to stay inside, but that seemed impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local official Hassan Shabani said shells struck schools, a hospital and homes. On the Rwandan side, residents scanned nearby hills in small groups as \u201cchildren and women\u2026take refuge in houses when the gunfire becomes intense,\u201d said Farizi Bizimana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By late morning M23 fighters, whom Burundi accuses of receiving support from Rwanda, held Kamanyola. A Burundian military source said troops were reinforcing to avoid being overrun, warning of \u201ca real risk the situation escalates\u201d and calling any M23 push toward Uvira\u2014a Congolese city less than 30km from Bujumbura\u2014\u201ca red line for Burundi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new flare-up underscores the fragility of Thursday\u2019s agreement signed by DRC president F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi and Rwanda\u2019s Paul Kagame, hailed by US president Donald Trump as a \u201cmiracle,\u201d and comes after M23 offensives this year that extended their reach across North and South Kivu, including the regional capitals Goma and Bukavu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kinshasa has long accused Kigali of backing M23; Rwanda denies directing the group. For residents around the tri-border, the politics mattered little on Friday. \u201cWe just ran,\u201d said Antoinette. \u201cWe will return when the guns stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo sent hundreds of civilians scrambling across the border into Rwanda on Friday, as the M23 militia fought Congolese troops and Burundian soldiers for control of the frontier town of Kamanyola\u2014just 24 hours after Congolese and Rwandan leaders signed a US-brokered peace accord in Washington. Detonations rattled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6808,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions\/6808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}