COCOGO TOO MUCH TOO MUCH LIGHT. Your smartphone is also a factor

The insurgency led by the M23 rebels in eastern Congo has risen and reached the city of Goma, increasing the difficulties of the province in the region that experienced two devastating wars between the years 1996 and 2003.
The Tutsi-led Rebel Alliance, led by the Tutsi-LED, said it had captured the city of Lakeside of more than 2 million people, a major hub for refugees and aid groups lying on the Rwandan border.
The intensive burning of heavy artillery fire and rapid rator-a-tat of guns can be heard in the video of the airport of Goma, which was posted a few hours ago on social media and shows armed men working in the airport services.
About the size of Western Europe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it is officially known, has a population of 100 million and the UN has expressed concern that the M23’s wider military risks are a wider war.
Here’s what you need to know:
Who are the rebels?
M23 takes its name from the March 23, 2009, accord signed by the Congolese government and the tutsi-former Tutsi-LED Rebel group, the National Congress for the Protection of the People. M23 contains both the fighting from this original group and the opposition to the Congolese army and police.
This group did not wait long to accuse the Congolese government of not living in peace by fully selling the Tutsis in the Congo to the war and its administration. In 2012, it took control of Goma, bringing back many negotiations with the government.
It launched its current rebellion in 2022 and fighting flared up last year, leading to gains for the country m .3. The rebels claimed control of Masisi, about 80 kilometers north of Goma, in early January.
The discovery of the wreckage has been halted by the planned withdrawal last month of the UN peacekeeping force, which first put boots on the ground in the country in 2000.
In 2023, Congolese President Felix Tshuisedi asked the peacekeepers to be followed immediately. Their presence increased dramatically and deadly protests arose due to an understanding among some eastern residents who were not sufficiently protected by the warring citizens.
The UN Mission, which uses 11,000 guards and 1,750 civilians in Congo, was expanded in December of this year.
M23 has a variety of political parties, including one led by Corneille Nangaa, the head of the Electoral Commission of the listed companies including the department of Tshiserdi who was the first president of the US in Donald Trump. Nangaa himself was approved by the US for For effezlling Funds meant the election by Washington.
While it is difficult to gauge the extent of support for Nangaa’s Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), which sees the M23 rebels as a military wing, UN experts said in December that an increasing number of armed groups are also involved.
“Our target is not Goma or Bukavu but Kinshasa (the capital), the source of all problems,” he told Reeters in an interview. “In Congo, we have a weak situation or no situation. Where all the armed groups have emerged, because there is no situation.”
Rwanda’s role
Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, has been the de facto leader of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide in that country, in which a million Hutus were killed. While his regime has been accused of abusing the human rights of citizens and including copyrights in elections that are not free or fair, western countries tend to tolerate autocrats.
In addition to consolidating power at home, Rwanda under Kagama has a long history of military intervention inside the Congo. Rwanda and Uganda attacked in 1996 and 1998, saying they were defending themselves from local warring groups.

The Congolese government, UN officials and Western powers including the United States have accused Congolese’s neighbor Rwanda of ending the conflict by supporting thousands of its troops and powerful land on Congolese soil.
The UN team’s report in 2022 conveyed “hard evidence” where the Rwandan forces were present and the M23 rebels.
How Rebels Get Money
Several members of the Security Council, in an emergency meeting in the context of spiraling consensus on Sunday, expressed the feelings of the representative of Russia in the body, in the barrel of Vassily Nebenzia.
“We are convinced that the struggle to obtain the most important minerals of the Congo is one of the reasons for the continuation of the problem we are witnessing now,” said Nebenzia.
In the meantime26:51The human cost of cobalt, the substance that powers our devices
The push to electrify our cars is driving a scramble for cobalt, which is almost exclusively called for in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We speak to Siddharth Kara, author of Cobalt Red: How Congo Blood Rules Our Lives.
Many of the services of Congolese banks have long been acquired by Chinese and Western companies and armed groups. The Central African nation contains several minerals in the world that are part of the supply chains for electric vehicles, smartphones and computers.
M23 has been in control of the Coltan-Mining region of Rubaya for over a year. This has allowed them to generate US $ 800,000 US per month in production tax, according to the UN.
The group has expanded into new areas in recent weeks that are expected to generate more revenue, analysts said. It includes NUMBI, an eastern mining area rich in gold, trainmaline, and tin, tantalum and tungsten – the so-called 3t minerals used in computers and mobile phones.
Technology manufacturers scrutinize to ensure that the metals used in their products are not sourced from conflict zones such as Eastern Congo. Apple has denied allegations in the past that it obtained cobalt and other conflict minerals and in December it was said to have told suppliers to stop sourcing tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from Congo and Rwanda.

Men, women and children often work in toxic conditions in Congo’s mines, and according to UN experts, the rebels doubled the wages of diggeters to convince them to work in Rubaya.
M23’s control of the transport routes from Rubaya to Rwanda has led Rubaya Minerals to mix with the production of Rabaya, polluting the Coltan Supply Chain, the expert group of the Coltan Council, said the UN Council of Experts that was published earlier this month.
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