Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital

Update Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the rebel group Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) including M23, speaks during an interview with Associated Press in Goma, DR Congo, on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo)
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Updated 31 January 2025
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Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital

Rwanda-backed M23 advances toward second DR Congo regional capital
  • Group’s capture of most of Goma earlier in the week was a dramatic escalation in a region
  • The crisis has rattled the continent and international observers

GOMA, DR Congo: The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 moved south as it closed in on a key military airport in DR Congo on Friday, a day after pledging to take the capital Kinshasa and as international criticism mounted.

The group’s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier in the week was a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen decades of conflict involving multiple armed groups.

Rwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but is accused of seeking to profit from the region’s reserves of minerals used in global electronics.

The crisis has rattled the continent and international observers, with a southern African regional bloc holding an emergency summit in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare on Friday.

M23 fighters are now moving south.

Local sources said on Thursday that fighting was concentrated some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the city of Kavumu.




DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi speaks during the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City on September 25, 2024. (AFP)

The city has a strategic military airfield and is where the Congolese army has laid down its defensive line just 40 km north of South Kivu’s provincial capital Bukavu.

The United Nations warned it was concerned by “credible reports that the M23 is moving rapidly toward the city of Bukavu.”

The second biggest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after Goma, Bukavu has a population believed to be around two million.

The Congolese army has yet to comment on the latest M23 advances but President Felix Tshisekedi said earlier this week that a “vigorous” military response was under way.

Information about the fast-moving offensive has remained unclear, but so far M23 fighters have met limited resistance from the ill-equipped and poorly paid Congolese forces.

In Goma, residents have emerged to count the dead and search for food, as hospitals struggled to cope with the wounded.

“We do not want to live under the thumb of these people,” one person, who asked not to be named, said.

The United Nations, United States, European Union, China, Britain, France and mediator Angola have all called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces.

Britain said Thursday it was considering reviewing aid to Rwanda.

Rwanda has hit back at the criticism, with government spokesperson Yolande Makolo saying the UK did not deliver “a direct warning” about aid.

“The international community has its fair share of the blame in the current situation,” she posted on X.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame also strongly rejected accusations that Kigali is supporting the armed group, saying: “M23 are not Rwandans — they are Congolese.”

On Friday, the 16-nation Southern African Development Community will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the “worrying situation.”

Kagame and Angolan President Joao Lourenco, the African Union-appointed mediator between Kigali and Kinshasa on the conflict, will not attend.

The meeting follows soaring tensions between Kagame and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after the deaths of 13 South African soldiers in DRC’s east.

“We are ready to defend ourselves if we are attacked by a coalition including South African forces,” Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told South African public broadcaster SABC late Thursday.

The M23 and Rwandan troops entered Goma on Sunday. During days of intense clashes that killed more than 100 people, the group seized control over much of the city as many Congolese soldiers surrendered or fled.




M23 rebels escort government soldiers and police who surrendered to an undisclosed location in Goma, DR Congo, on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP)

“We are in Goma and we will not leave,” Corneille Nangaa, head of a coalition of groups including the M23, said on Thursday.

“We will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa,” he added.

The offensive has heightened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, the UN said.

Africa’s health agency warned that the “unnecessary war” in eastern DRC — a hotspot for infectious diseases including mpox — raised the risk of pandemic.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of waging an offensive to profit from the region’s mineral wealth.

A report by UN experts in July supported the claims, finding that Rwanda has thousands of troops in eastern DRC — and holds “de facto control” over the M23.

Rwanda has denied the accusations.


Trump to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court

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Trump to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court

Trump to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court for targeting the United States and its allies, such as Israel, a White House official said.
The order will place financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, said the official.
The move by Trump comes after US Senate Democrats last week blocked a Republican-led effort to sanction the ICC in protest at its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Netanyahu is currently visiting Washington.
The ICC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braced for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, sources told Reuters last month.
In December, the court’s president, judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions would “rapidly undermine the Court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence.”
This is the second time the court has faced US retaliation as a result of its work. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals. The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.

Finland to ban Russian nationals from buying property: minister

Finland to ban Russian nationals from buying property: minister
Updated 06 February 2025
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Finland to ban Russian nationals from buying property: minister

Finland to ban Russian nationals from buying property: minister
  • “The government has just decided to submit a proposal to parliament to ban real estate transactions by Russians in Finland,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said
  • “Our aim is to strengthen the security of Finland and the Finnish people“

HELSINKI: Finland’s government on Thursday proposed a ban on property purchases by nationals from countries that initiate wars, meaning in practice that real estate transactions by Russian citizens will be restricted.
It recommended that “persons whose country of nationality is waging a war of aggression and may pose a threat to Finland’s national security” would not be permitted to buy real estate there.
“The government has just decided to submit a proposal to parliament to ban real estate transactions by Russians in Finland,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen told a press conference.
“Our aim is to strengthen the security of Finland and the Finnish people,” he added.
While the bill did not mention Russia explicitly, Hakkanen said the current security environment meant “Russia and Russian nationals and companies are the ones concerned.”
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) eastern border with Russia last year blocked several real estate acquisitions by private individuals and companies linked to Russia, citing threats to national security.
According to Hakkanen, the bill aims to prevent property being used for “large-scale hostile influence,” such as enabling intelligence activities and various forms of sabotage against Finland.
Persons holding a permanent residence permit in Finland or a long-term European Union residence permit granted by Finland would not be affected by the ban.
To reduce the risk that the ban will be circumnavigated by so-called dummy purchasers — someone who buys property on behalf of another to conceal the aim of a purchase — the ministry said it “could impose an obligation to apply for a permit.”
Parliament is set to vote on the bill later this spring, according to Hakkanen.


Panama president decries US ‘lies’ about canal fees

In this aerial view a cargo ship enters the Panama Canal on the Pacific Ocean side in Panama City on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
In this aerial view a cargo ship enters the Panama Canal on the Pacific Ocean side in Panama City on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 06 February 2025
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Panama president decries US ‘lies’ about canal fees

In this aerial view a cargo ship enters the Panama Canal on the Pacific Ocean side in Panama City on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
  • Allegations are latest point of tension between countries which have clashed over the canal since Trump claimed waterway had effectively been taken over by China

PANAMA CITY: Panama President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday said the United States was spreading “lies and falsehoods” after the State Department claimed US government vessels would be able to pass the Panama Canal without paying a fee.
The fiery allegations are the latest point of tension between the two countries which have clashed over the canal since US President Donald Trump claimed the vital waterway had effectively been taken over by China and vowed “we’re taking it back.”
Speaking to journalists, Mulino expressed his “absolute rejection” of managing US-Panama ties “based on lies and falsehoods.”
The Panama Canal Authority issued a statement late on Wednesday denying the claim from the US State Department earlier in the day that Panama’s government had agreed to no longer charge crossing fees for US government vessels, in a move that would save the US millions of dollars a year.
Trump has accused the Central American country of charging excessive rates to use its trade passage, one of the busiest in the world.
“Why are they making an important institutional statement from the entity that governs the foreign policy of the United States, under the President of the United States, based on a falsehood?” Mulino asked on Thursday, calling the State Department’s claim “simply and plainly intolerable.”
Mulino said he had asked his ambassador in Washington to take “firm steps” to deny the Trump administration’s claim.


Four killed as US military-contracted plane crashes in Philippines

Four killed as US military-contracted plane crashes in Philippines
Updated 06 February 2025
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Four killed as US military-contracted plane crashes in Philippines

Four killed as US military-contracted plane crashes in Philippines
  • The Philippine military said in a statement it could not release information about the crash on Mindanao Island
  • None of the four known victims had so far been identified

MANILA: A small plane that crashed in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least four people on board, was contracted by the American military, the US embassy confirmed without further detail.
The Philippine military said in a statement it could not release information about the crash on Mindanao Island as the matter was classified and an investigation was ongoing.
Small numbers of American troops are put on short-term rotational deployments in the Philippines, where the US military has helped provide intelligence to troops battling militants linked to the Daesh group that remain active on Mindanao.
The US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Regional police spokesman Jopy Ventura told AFP that officers had not yet determined the cause of the fixed-wing aircraft’s crash on a farm near the municipality of Ampatuan.
None of the four known victims had so far been identified, he said, adding that police and soldiers had been deployed to the site to prevent potential tampering with evidence.
The plane’s tail number, identified by police as N349CA, was registered to defense firm Metrea, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware, which identified it as a Beechcraft Super King Air B300.
The Metra website describes the company as a “leading provider of effects-as-a-service to national security partners across multiple domains and over a dozen mission areas.”
Municipal rescuer Rhea Martin told AFP her team had found four dead bodies at the crash site.
“The bodies were found near the plane,” she told AFP, adding: “The plane was cut in half.”


Police probe school link in Sweden’s worst mass shooting

Police probe school link in Sweden’s worst mass shooting
Updated 06 February 2025
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Police probe school link in Sweden’s worst mass shooting

Police probe school link in Sweden’s worst mass shooting
  • Swedish police found three rifles near the body of the gunman, who they believe took his own life
  • Syrian Arab Republic’s embassy in Stockholm wrote on Facebook that Syrian citizens were among the dead

OREBRO, Sweden: A gunman who killed 11 people, including himself, at an adult education center in central Sweden may have been a student at the school, police said on Thursday, as they described chaotic scenes after the country’s deadliest mass shooting as being like an “inferno.”
Police believe the suspected killer — identified by a Reuters source and Swedish media as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old unemployed recluse — acted alone in Tuesday’s attack on an educational campus in Orebro, about 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm.
Swedish police found three rifles near the body of the gunman, who they believe took his own life.
“The police who arrived at the scene have spoken about what could be described as an inferno ... dead people and injured people, screams and smoke,” Orebro police chief Lars Wiren said.
Police found 10 empty bullet magazines and a “large amount” of unused ammunition. Wiren said police arrived on the scene five minutes after the alarm was raised and believed the attacker then began directing his fire toward them.
“After approximately one hour, the acute operation was over when the suspected perpetrator was found dead with several weapons near him,” Wiren said, adding that police had not opened fire during the incident.
Police said the smoke was not caused by fire but by “some sort of pyrotechnics.” Several police had to seek medical attention for inhaling smoke.

’NO CLEAR MOTIVE’
Swedish authorities have said there was no evidence so far that the shooter, who was not previously known to police, had “ideological motives.”
“We don’t see a clear motive, but we’re looking for it,” police investigations leader Anna Bergqvist said. “It’s a very difficult question, but it’s really important for all of us to be able to present a motive as soon as possible.”
Police said in a statement that there was information indicating that he had been a student at the school. “That is something we will have to look closer at,” Bergqvist told the press conference.
Police have not confirmed the name of the suspect and are awaiting genetic, dental and fingerprint data before making a conclusive identification.
The Risbergska adult education center, where the attack took place, offers adult courses and Swedish language classes for immigrants.
While police have yet to disclose the identities of the victims, Syrian Arab Republic’s embassy in Stockholm wrote on Facebook that Syrian citizens were among the dead, without specifying how many. Bosnia’s foreign ministry said separately its embassy had been informed by relatives that one Bosnian citizen had been killed and another wounded in the attack.
Sweden has a high level of gun ownership by European standards, mainly linked to hunting, though it is much lower than in the United States. A wave of gang crime in recent years has also highlighted the high incidence of illegal weapons.
BARRICADED IN CLASSROOMS
While Sweden has suffered a wave of gun violence in recent years related to gang crime, the nation has been shocked by the brutality of Tuesday’s crime.
Survivors barricaded themselves in classrooms and hid under beds to escape the killer. When they were released by police, they spoke of seeing pools of blood where victims had been shot. Police are still working to formally identify the dead.
Six people were admitted to a local hospital in the wake of the attack, five of whom required surgery for gunshot wounds. All were now in stable condition though two remained in intensive care, regional authorities said in a statement.
Many students in Sweden’s adult school system are immigrants seeking qualifications to help them find jobs in the Nordic country, while also learning Swedish.
The Campus Risbergska school has around 2,700 pupils, around 800 of whom were enrolled in Swedish for Immigrants courses, according to information provided by the local authority.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who called the attack a “dark day” for Sweden, was holding a regular gathering of the government on Thursday and has invited all the opposition parties to attend in a show of political unity.
Unlike in many countries, access to schools in Sweden is generally not tightly controlled. Speaking to Swedish Radio, School Minister Lotta Edholm, said that should change.