Row upon row of makeshift shelters on Monday at the Lushagala camp just outside Goma which holds about 10,000 internally displaced people. Occupants of the Lushagala Kashaka IDP camp who fled the fighting for the city have begun returning. Photo by EPA-EFE
Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Rebels occupying the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma called a unilateral pause in the fighting, but the government dismissed the cease-fire as a stunt designed to head off growing international concern over the escalating casualty and humanitarian toll.
The Congo River Alliance (AFC), which includes the so-called M23 group, said in a statement Monday that it had called for the truce, beginning Tuesday, "in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Kinshasa regime [the DRC government]."
Accusing Congolese forces of killing people by using aircraft and other weaponry to attack rebel-held areas, the AFC said it would hold its current positions but would not try to take additional territory.
"We reiterate our commitment to protecting and defending the civilian population and our positions."
The DRC blames the M23 rebels which it says are backed by neighboring Rwanda for the crisis.
The United Nations, which has a large peacekeeping contingent in the region, and many countries have called on the M23 and Rwanda forces to halt their advances inside the country and for both countries to get around the negotiating table.
Recent fighting in and around Goma, 1,500 miles east of Kinshasa, which the M23 captured a week ago, has killed at least 900 people and injured 2,880, with the European Union and G7 foreign minister issuing a joint statement Monday calling the offensive a blatant infringement of DRC sovereignty and an assault on its "territorial integrity."
There was no sign of the government accepting the offer with military spokesman Gen. Sylvain Ekenge telling CNN he did not believe the rebels were sincere.
"Have you seen the Rwandans do what they say? It (the cease-fire announcement by the rebels) is a communication for international consumption and to put the international community to sleep on its feet," he said.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said he did not know Rwandan Defense Force soldiers were in the DRC, despite being commander-in-chief of his country's armed forces.
"There are many things I don't know. But if you want to ask me, is there a problem in Congo that concerns Rwanda? And that Rwanda would do anything to protect itself? I'd say 100%," said Kagame who has been effectively in power for three decades since the end of the Rwandan civil war in 1994.
Kagame is due to come face-to-face with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi at a regional peace summit in Tanzania on Friday -- but decades of hostilities mean expectations of any negotiations producing a breakthrough are extremely low.
Several rounds of talks in the past 12 months have broken down without any progress.