Dozens are reported killed in east Congo as the government and Rwanda-backed rebels trade blame.

#GOMA, Congo — At least 50 people were killed in weekend attacks in Congo’s conflict-battered east, authorities said Saturday. The government traded blame with Rwanda-backed rebels over who was responsible for the violence that quickly escalated the conflict in the region.

The renewed violence that residents reported in and around the region’s largest city of Goma — which the M23 rebels control — was the biggest threat yet to ongoing peace efforts by both the Gulf Arab state of Qatar and African nations in the conflict that has raised fears of regional warfare.

Goma resident Amboma Safari recounted how his family of four spent the night under their bed as they heard gunfire and bomb blasts through Friday night. “We saw corpses of soldiers, but we don’t know which group they are from,” Safari said.

The decades-long conflict between Congo and the M23 rebels escalated in January, when the rebels made an unprecedented advance and seized the strategic eastern Congolese city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February. The latest fighting has killed some 3,000 people and worsened what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with around seven million people displaced.

At least 52 people were killed between Friday and Saturday, including a person shot dead at Goma’s Kyeshero Hospital, Congo’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement that blamed the attack on M23.

M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka issued a statement blaming Congolese forces and their allies for the attacks. Kanyuka said Congo’s joint operations with local militias and southern African troops “directly threaten the stability and security of civilians” in the region.

The group said it has been compelled to “reconsider its position to prioritize the security” of the people in the area, suggesting the crisis could worsen.

Christian Kalamo, a civil society leader in the North Kivu province that includes Goma, said at least one body was seen on the streets on Saturday.

“It is difficult to know if it is the Wazalendo, the FARDC (Congolese forces) or the M23″ that carried out the attacks, Kalamo said. “Now, we don’t know what will happen, and we live with fear in our stomachs, thinking that the war will resume.”

More than 30 people killed, 84 injured in Russian missile attack on Ukrainian city of Sumy.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.

The two ballistic missiles hit around 10:15 a.m., officials said. Images from the scene showed lines of black body bags on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris. Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burned-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.

The dead included two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement. A further 117 people were wounded, including 15 children, it said.

“Only filthy scum can act like this -- taking the lives of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. In a statement on social media, he said the first strike hit buildings belonging to a city university, while the second exploded above street level.

The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said the strike also used cluster munitions in an attempt to kill as many people as possible. The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim.

The attack on Sumy followed a deadly April 4 missile strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed some 20 people, including nine children.

Zelenskyy called for a global response to the attack. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs. What’s needed is an attitude toward Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said.

Other world leaders also condemned the attack, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying that it undermined Washington-led peace talks between the two sides.

“Everyone knows: This war was initiated by Russia alone. And today, it is clear that Russia alone chooses to continue it -- with blatant disregard for human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts” of U.S. President Trump, he wrote in a statement.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two women, ages 62 and 68, and a 48-year-old man were killed in Russian attacks on the Kherson region, local Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. Another person was killed during Russian shelling on Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.

The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said a Russian strike hit one of the city’s kindergartens, shattering windows and damaging the building’s facade. No casualties were reported.
Spring offensive fears despite peace talks

The strikes come a day after Russia and Ukraine’s senior diplomats accused each other of violating a tentative U.S.-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an end to the three-year war.

The two countries’ foreign ministers spoke at separate events at the annual Antalya Diplomacy Forum a day after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss peace prospects.

“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that Moscow would provide the U.S., Turkey and international bodies with a list of Kyiv’s attacks during the past three weeks.

His Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, contested that claim, saying Saturday that Russia had launched almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 exploding drones and more than 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, “mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.

Russian forces hold the advantage in Ukraine, and Kyiv has warned that Moscow is planning a fresh spring offensive to ramp up pressure on its foe and improve its negotiating position.

Ukraine has endorsed a broader U.S. ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions. European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said the Sumy attack crossed “any line of decency” and that the White House remained committed to ending the conflict.

“There are scores of civilian dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting, and this is wrong,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the attack “horrifying” and said it offered “a tragic reminder” of why the administration was trying to end the war in favor of “a just and durable peace.”

#Brazilian President Criticises #Trump, Says ‘He Was Elected To Govern U.S., Not Rule The #World.’

#UPDATES 🇨🇩🇪🇺: Germany, the Netherlands, and Nordic countries in the European Union (Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, and Finland) agree that Rwandan officials must be sanctioned unconditionally.

Kagame Did Not Invade #DRC to Save Tutsis . . . For three decades he has used this lie to deflect attention from his resource plunder and the death of millions of innocent Congolese. #Rwanda #DRC

UPDATE: All four crew members recovered, in hospital after fishing boat capsizes off Halifax

Taiwan detected six Chinese balloons off the island, the defence ministry said, as Beijing maintains military pressure to push its claim of sovereignty.

https://theafricancriminologyjournal.wordpress.com/2022/06/23/the-congo-adventure-inside-zimbabwes-role-in-the-great-war-of-africa/

#Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of “remotely disabling” his #Cybertruck, which had been sent to the frontline of Russia’s war in #Ukraine.

Kadyrov claimed Thursday that the vehicle, which he said had been outfitted with a machine gun and was “performing well in combat,” had been shut down, adding Friday that he had sent two additional Tesla Cybertrucks to the frontline.

The Chechen warlord, known for his loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his active involvement in Russia’s ongoing military operations in #Ukraine, shared footage of himself in August driving a Cybertruck and claimed it was a gift from Musk. In the video, a smiling Kadyrov was shown driving through an empty square in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and thanking Musk for the vehicle “soon to be sent to the front.”

Musk, however, firmly denied sending it. “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?” he wrote at the time on X, the social media platform he owns.

#Russia pounds #Ukrainian energy, military-industrial sites in precision strikes over week
Russian forces gained advantageous positions and repulsed 23 Ukrainian army counterattacks in the #Donetsk area where the enemy lost over 3,000 troops and three tanks in the past week, the Defense Ministry reported