Reports emerging from frontline in Lubero territory, North Kivu indicate that a powerful and influential armed group has joined the AFC/M23 rebellion cementing the expansion of the ongoing fighting that the rebels promised to topple Kinshasa government.
According to Military intelligence on ground, the FPP-AP led by self-proclaimed Gen. Kasereka Kasiyano, is one of the best structured and influential armed groups in North Kivu.
From Mbwavinywa, its headquarters set up in the south of Lubero, General Kabido’s movement has managed to extend its influence to the Tshopo gate, via the gold-mining region of Manguredjipa.
With its units present in dozens of villages in Lubero, its men live off the monthly tokens they impose on adult inhabitants in the villages, from the control of gold mines and from the toll taxes they collect at checkpoints they have set up on the main agricultural access roads.
On Friday March 7, the M23 fighters matched from Kasugho heading for Bunyatenge, a village close to his (Gen.Kasereka) headquarters in Mbwavinywa, south of the Lubero territory (North Kivu), the self-proclaimed general Kasereka Kasiyano chose to join them.
In a video message to the public, Augustin Darwin, spokesperson for the Front de Patriotes pour la Paix-Armée du Peuple (FPP-AP) of Kabido announced the adhesion of the Front commun de la résistance (FCR), a platform composed of the armed groups FPP-AP of Kabido and NDC-R/M of Mapenzi, a former close associate of Guidon Shimirayi, to the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC/M23).
Darwin justified their allegiance to the M23 rebellion by highlighting several grievances.
He accuses the Congolese army of profiteering from mineral trading, the unexplained withdrawal of the military from the front, committing acts of pillage, rape and harassment of populations as they pass through entities.
But not only that, they also deplore the “failure to take into account the sacrifices of the self-defense groups” by the authorities who deprive them of “logistics for the defense of the integrity of the country”.
For Kabido’s coalition, this is a betrayal that leads them to turn their backs on Kinshasa and instead join the AFC/M23 which campaigns, according to them, “for good governance and the fight against corruption”.
