DR Congo offers $5m bounties for rebel leaders

The Democratic Republic of Congo government has offered a reward of $5m (£4m) for help arresting three leaders of a rebel group which has seized much of the east of the country this year.

Corneille Nangaa, a former head of DR Congo’s electoral commission, now leads the Congo River Alliance, which includes the M23 rebel group. He has addressed large rallies in the cities under the group’s control.

The bounty is also on offer for M23 leaders Sultani Makenga and Bertrand Bisimwa.

Last year the three men were prosecuted in absentia by a military court and given death sentences for treason.

A reward of $4m (£3) was also offered for the arrest of their accomplices.

But the chances of them being arrested appear slim.

In recent weeks the army has been no match for the Rwandan-backed rebels who have captured large parts of the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo, including the region’s two largest cities – Goma and Bukavu.

So President Félix Tshisekedi has instead focused on trying to build international pressure for Rwanda to face sanctions for backing the rebels.

Last year, a report by UN experts said up to 4,000 Rwanda troops were working with the M23 in DR Congo.

Thousands of people have been killed during the fighting and hundreds of thousands left without shelter after fleeing their homes.

The Congolese government is also seeking US support in exchange for access to its minerals.

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of trying to take control of its minerals, which include gold and coltan, used in consumers electronics such as mobile phones and computers.

In response to the reports that DR Congo was offering access to the minerals in exchange for military help fighting the M23 rebels, presidential spokeswoman Tina Salama said on X last month that President Tshisekedi was inviting the US “whose companies source strategic raw materials from Rwanda, materials that are looted from the DRC and smuggled to Rwanda” to instead buy them from the Congolese – the “rightful owners”.

Rwanda denies looting minerals from DR Congo.

It no longer denies backing the M23 but says it is trying to prevent the conflict in DR Congo from spilling over into its own territory.

Rwanda also accuses the Congolese government of working with a different armed group in DR Congo, which is linked to those responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis were massacred.

Both the M23 and Rwanda’s government are led by Tutsis.

The Congolese government denies working with the FDLR group accused by Rwanda of being a “genocidal militia”.

In a related development, information reaching Diaspora Digital Media has it that M23 rebels have abducted at least 130 people, including sick and wounded men.

They were abducted from two hospitals in the city of Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations.

The incident took place on the night of February 28, when M23 fighters raided CBCA Ndosho Hospital, taking 116 patients, and Heal Africa Hospital, where 15 were abducted.

The rebels claimed the patients were members of the DRC’s army or pro-government militias, such as Wazalendo.

The UN expressed deep concern for the abducted individuals’ safety, condemning the coordinated raids that targeted hospital beds and left the patients incommunicado in undisclosed locations.

The M23’s actions are part of their ongoing offensive in eastern DRC, which has seen an unprecedented advance since the end of January.

They have captured major cities like Goma and Bukavu, and their control of the region is driven by the desire to access valuable minerals.

The conflict, rooted in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the struggle for control of DRC’s resources, has escalated significantly. Since December, around 7,000 people have been killed, and nearly 500,000 have been displaced after 90 camps were destroyed in the fighting.

International sanctions and peace negotiations have failed to halt the rebel advance, and the situation in the region remains dire.

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