M23 force in DR Congo says drone strike killed spokesman

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GOMA — The Rwanda-backed M23 force fighting in eastern DR Congo said Saturday that its military spokesman had been killed in a Congolese army drone strike.

The announcement came days after government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) targeted the armed group with a drone strike near Rubaya, a strategic mining town in Masisi territory in North Kivu province.

"The Kinshasa regime has deliberately flouted the ceasefire and imposed a total war" by launching drone attacks behind the front lines, the M23 said in a statement signed by its civilian spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka.

One casualty had been Colonel Willy Ngoma, the group's military spokesman, who had been killed on Tuesday, it added.

Earlier this week, security sources and local residents told AFP of the government offensive launched against the M23, with fighting concentrating around Rubaya.

Born in 1974, Ngoma joined the M23 when it resurfaced in late 2021.

Appointed as military spokesperson, Ngoma became known for videos in which he appeared jovially alongside Congolese or Burundian soldiers captured during fighting.

In 2024, he and five senior officials of armed groups operating in eastern DRC were sanctioned by the United Nations, accused of having "planned, directed or committed acts constituting violations of human rights or international humanitarian law".

Ngoma was also sanctioned by the European Union in 2022 and by the United States in 2023 for his role in the M23.

Over three decades of conflict have ravaged the eastern DRC, where dozens of rival armed groups and foreign powers have long vied for control of the region's rich veins of valuable minerals.

The resurgence of the M23 in 2021 plunged the region into further bloodshed.