Near Uganda, on the Rwandan border, DRC villages have taken up arms News from Armed Groups

Overnight, the armies have taken the villages of Tshanzu and Runyoni, the last redoubts of the M23 group before the defeat years ago.

Two people near the border with Uganda and Rwanda in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were arrested last night, a local official and an activist group said.

On Monday, Lt. Col. Muhindo Luanzo, an aide to Rutshuru Territorial Administrator, blamed the attack on M23 fighters for a rebel group that took over large parts of the territory in 2012 and 2013.

The two villages, Tshanzu and Runyoni, were the last strongholds of the M23 before Congolese and United Nations forces chased Uganda and Rwanda in 2013.

Since then, efforts have been made to demobilize the fighters in the region, but the group has complained about the slow implementation of the peace agreement and some have returned to the DRC.

It was not possible to immediately confirm the identity of the armed men who took the two villages.

M23 officials and DRC army and government spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Luanzo said the gunmen attacked Tshanzu and Runyoni at the same time on Sunday night.

“Now our troops are conducting counterattack operations because they have identified an enemy coming from Rwanda tonight,” Luanzo told Reuters by telephone.

UN investigators have accused R23 of supporting M23 in Rwanda and Uganda, which were militarily involved in the DRC in two regional wars two decades ago. Both countries deny this.

A group of local activists denounced the clashes with light and heavy weapons on Sunday night, causing people to leave their homes and cross the border into Bunagan to enter Uganda.

“Uganda is suffering from a large number of Congolese refugees,” said Irene Nakasiita of the Ugandan Red Cross Association.

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, from Nairobi near Kenya, said some of the people who had fled had confessed to some M23 group commanders, accusing them of violating their rights.

“Hundreds of people have crossed the village of Bunagana,” Webb said.

On Sunday evening, the United States issued a security alert, warning of a potential attack on the capital Goma province, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the two towns, and advising its workers to take refuge in place.

Meanwhile, all of Goma’s main streets were then filled with soldiers, a Reuters reporter said.