UN Security Council calls on Rwanda to pull troops from Congo

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations Security Council on Friday called on Rwanda's military to stop supporting the M23 rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and immediately withdraw all troops from Congolese territory "without preconditions."

The 15-member council unanimously adopted a French-drafted resolution urging the DRC and Rwanda to return to diplomatic talks to achieve a lasting peaceful resolution.

The M23 has captured the two largest cities in eastern Congo, stoking fears of a wider war. Rwanda denies allegations from Congo and the U.N. that it supports the M23 with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against Hutu militias which it accuses of fighting alongside the Congolese military.

The U.N. resolution "strongly condemns the ongoing offensive and advances of the M23 in North-Kivu and South Kivu with the support of Rwanda Defence Forces" and demands that M23 immediately stop its hostilities and withdraw.

Congo says Rwanda has used the M23 as a proxy to loot its minerals such as gold and coltan, used in smartphones and computers. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a Rwandan minister and a senior rebel for their alleged role in the conflict.

The resolution also condemns support by Congolese troops "to specific armed groups, in particular the FDLR, and calls for the cessation of such support and for the urgent implementation of commitments to neutralize the group."

Rwanda accuses Congo of fighting alongside the FDLR, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. The Congolese military has vowed to arrest soldiers who cooperate with the FDLR, but the government has continued to use FDLR fighters as proxies, U.N. experts said in December.

The M23 vows to defend Tutsi interests, particularly against ethnic Hutu militias like the FDLR. The FDLR was founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide that killed close to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The escalation of a decade-old insurgency has killed several peacekeepers with the U.N. force in Congo, known as MONUSCO.

The U.N. resolution warns that "attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes and that planning, directing, sponsoring or participating in attacks against MONUSCO peacekeepers constitutes a basis for sanctions."

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Alistair Bell and Rosalba O'Brien)

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