The Red Cross escorts hundreds of stranded Congolese soldiers from rebel-controlled cities to capital

Rubber, Congo – Hundreds of stranded Congolese soldiers and police officers and their families moved to the capital from the rebel-controlled city of Goma in eastern Congo, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced on Wednesday.

Soldiers and police have been taking refuge in the UN stability mission at the Congo base since January, when decades of conflict escalated in eastern Congo, as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels developed and occupied strategic Goma.

The Red Cross said in a statement that the operation was the result of an agreement reached between the Congolese government, rebels, the United Nations mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross, known as the neutral neutral middleman. It added that upon arrival in Kinshasa, soldiers, police and their families will be accepted by Congolese authorities.

Myriam Favier of Goma, ICRC Goma, said at a press conference Wednesday that the transfer from Goma to Kinshasa will last for several days, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the west.

Announcing the news was full of relief.

“We are disarmed because we have no choice but we want to arrive in Kinshasa,” a Congolese soldier told the Associated Press by phone before the transfer. “As soldiers, we are ready to defend our homeland at any time. We have lost a battle, not a war,” he said.

He spoke anonymously because he was still in a rebel-controlled area and was not allowed to speak to journalists.

Congolese Armed Forces spokesman Sylvain Ekenge welcomed the initiative in a statement Wednesday.

“The Congolese Armed Forces hope that this operation will strictly adhere to the commitments made,” he said.

Media shooting or shooting this operation is not allowed for security reasons.

News from ICRC escorts is ongoing tensions in eastern Congo, although both sides agree to a truce earlier this month.

On Saturday, Kaziba residents in South Kiwi Province reported a conflict between the Congolese armed forces, supported by Allied militias and M23s.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups, amid a mineral-rich Congo mineral-rich near the border with Rwanda, the conflict has created one of the world's most important humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people were displaced.

According to UN experts, the rebels were supported by about 4,000 soldiers from neighboring Rwanda and sometimes vowed to Kinshasa.

The UN Human Rights Commission has set up a committee in Euturary to investigate atrocities, including “summary executions” of rape allegations and killings.

The conflict in eastern Congo has been estimated to have killed an estimated 6 million people since the mid-1990s after the Rwandan genocide. Some Hutu extremists responsible for the 1994 killing of the Rwandan minorities Tutsis and Hutu, later fled the border and joined eastern Congo, exacerbating proxy battles between rival militias.

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Banchereau reported that it was from Dakar, Senegal.