Link to article: https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00091809.html
Earlier in the week a ceasefire agreement was reached between Congo and The M23 Rebels. This was a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds for a safe passage of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people from these conflicts. However recent events have shown that the Rwandan backed rebels aren’t following it. They gained ground on Eastern Congo on Wednesday, February 5th. They took control of a city only 60 miles from the Capital, Bukavu. The situation remains highly volatile reported the U.N’s deputy head of its mission there, adding that the risk of escilation has remained persistent. Congo’s government has now claimed the ceasefire as “false communication.” With the UN’s reports of heavy fighting increasing.
The U.N. has also reported that the heaviest amounts of fighting is taking place in areas that are rich in minerals. This could be due to geopolitics. Minerals are a valuable trading commodity and can effectively boost a countries economy. Having access to minerals would allow said State to trade them and increase their wealth. Goma has trillions of dollars in wealth from their minerals alone. So whilst this fight may be about other things, the fact that Goma could give these rebels access to so much money had to be a contributing factor to this invasion. As we have covered in class almost nothing has a single cause. Most things that States do are multicausational. Along with this there have been reports that the rebels have begun moving further East to Bukavu. Another explanation as to why they invaded Goma, to have closer access to the Capital of Congo. This city allows them to have a strategic location to move further East from. So you can see how geopolitics plays a roll in all of this. If the geography of the city had no natural resources or were in the west it most likely wouldn’t have been under this much attack.