'Enemy is next door': DR Congo town dreads advancing rebels

A woman in the wood market in Lubero, North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on December 18, 2024. Displaced people are pouring into Lubero, while DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) are trying to contain an offensive by M23 rebels. [AFP]

Life seems almost normal in the streets of Lubero, but the calm is deceptive -- the town nestled in the forested, misty hills of eastern DR Congo is under threat from an advancing rebel militia.

"The enemy is right next door," interim mayor Crispin Hinga told AFP, gravely.

The front line is now only around 50 kilometres (31 miles) away and "most people have already packed their bags", Hinga said.

In the cold rain, soldiers of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), who have been forced to retreat in recent clashes, walk the muddy streets.

Fear among the town's around 100,000 souls is heightened -- M23 rebels have advanced several dozen kilometres (miles) in just the last few days.

The March 23 Movement (M23), an armed group supported by Rwanda and its army, has seized vast swathes of territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since November 2021.

For 30 years, the mineral-rich east has suffered from the ravages of fighting between local and foreign armed groups, dating back to the regional wars of the 1990s.

The rebel's latest offensive was launched just ahead of a planned summit in the Angolan capital that was supposed to return peace to the region.

But talks between DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame were abruptly cancelled last Sunday over disagreements on the terms of a proposed peace deal.

Meanwhile, the fighting continues.

For now, traders in central Lubero still tend to their stalls and groups of children run and play around the old brick buildings.

"There's a bit of psychosis among the people but the administration continues to function," military administrator of the territory Alain Kiwewa said, trying to offer reassurance.

At least 100,000 people have fled fighting since December 2, the United Nations said.

Some are housed in local homes; others opted to flee further north.

"I appear calm but inside I'm not calm," admitted Mumbere Wangavo, a representative of a local chieftaincy who has sought refuge with a family in Lubero.

He recently returned to his village of Mbingi "to bring a bit of food" to those who stayed, he said.

Government forces are accused by those who fled the fighting of ransacking villages as they retreat.

"They're looting. In our village all the houses have been emptied, there's nothing left," one of the displaced Jeanne Masika said.

"We are afraid of the M23 and our soldiers."

Most of those interviewed by AFP did not dare to speak out in the town filled with Congolese army soldiers.

Many believe that the military leaders are responsible for the rout of the Congolese forces.

"How far will we be humiliated?" a local official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They're sending our soldiers to the front, then they abandon them and they have to retreat on foot for dozens of kilometres," another resident said.

"It's no wonder they go looting," he added to agreement from a nearby group of people.

The DRC armed forces on Friday announced a shuffle in its upper echelons.

"There are traitors in our army," said Assa Paluku Mahamba, who represents a coalition of Wazalendo (meaning "Patriots" in Swahili), a disparate group of militias backing the Congolese army.

But some members of the Wazalendo are suspected of having pulled back their forces in order to help the M23 advance.

A climate of suspicion and defiance is fanned by messages from the M23 flooding social media and using telephone calls to sow false information.

Many Lubero residents say they are convinced that "enemy informants" have infiltrated the town.

Rights campaigners and civil society representatives say they increasingly receive threats as the M23 advances.

The M23 rebellion is said to muzzle any dissent in areas under its control.

Opening his phone, a civil society representative receives a message from a suspected M23 informant. "Have you fled yet?" the person asks.

"They know very well who we are," a local association representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, clearly worried.

"If they come here, I'll be forced to pack my bags."