The military spokesperson for the M23 rebel group, Willy Ngoma, was killed in an army drone strike in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, two senior rebel officials, a regional diplomat, and a Western adviser to the government said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack happened near Rubaya, in North Kivu, at around 3 a.m. (0100 GMT), and came after several days of sustained drone attacks on the area by the Congolese army, one of the senior M23 officials said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rubaya is a strategic coltan-mining hub that produces around 15% of the world’s supply, making it a key financial stronghold for the M23 rebels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Congolese government recently\u00a0added the site to a shortlist of strategic mining assets\u00a0being offered to the United States under a minerals cooperation framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil society sources reported heavy fighting in several localities near Rubaya since Sunday, forcing hundreds of families to flee the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The killing of Ngoma comes as\u00a0Qatar\u2011mediated ceasefire efforts\u00a0continue, with Kinshasa and M23 having\u00a0signed agreements\u00a0in Doha to establish a joint ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism involving Qatar, the United States and the African Union as observers..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ngoma had been under\u00a0European Union sanctions, opens new tab\u00a0since December 2022 for his role as the M23 spokesperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for the Congolese presidency declined to comment and a spokesperson for Congo’s army did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
M23, which the United Nations says is backed by Rwanda, controls large swathes of North and South Kivu provinces after a rapid offensive last year in which the rebels seized the strategic cities of Goma and Bukavu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rebels briefly captured the city of Uvira in December and the Congolese army\u00a0retook it last month. Congo reopened its border with Burundi there on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo deployed a joint exploratory assessment team to Uvira this week to support the implementation of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism agreed in Doha and evaluate security conditions in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The military spokesperson for the M23 rebel group, Willy Ngoma, was killed in an army drone strike in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, two senior rebel officials, a regional diplomat, and a Western adviser to the government said. The attack happened near Rubaya, in North Kivu, at around 3 a.m. (0100 GMT), and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":42055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[820,9783,9782],"class_list":["post-42054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-m23","tag-rubaya-town","tag-willy-ngoma"],"yoast_head":"\n