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Kigali accuses DR Congo of firing rockets into Rwanda
Congolese army soldiers patrol National Road 2 in Kibumba, Nyiragongo Territory, as United Nations vehicles pass by to drop off soldiers at a site near the city of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, June 1, 2022. PHOTO/AFP
Rwanda's defence ministry on Friday said the Democratic Republic of Congo's army fired two rockets into its territory in the latest of a series of tit-for-tat allegations.
The charge from Kigali came after Kinshasa accused neighbouring Rwanda on Wednesday of deploying 500 special forces troops on its soil, as tensions flare between the two East African states.
"The DRC armed forces, FARDC, fired two 122mm rockets into Rwanda from the Bunagana area," in the west of the country around midday, the ministry said in a statement.
"There were no casualties but the local population is terrified," it added.
The statement said similar shelling by DRC forces took place on March 19 and May 23 and had caused casualties and damaged property.
The accusations come amid a sharp deterioration in relations over the recent resurgence of the M23 militia in the DRC's volatile east.
The DRC has accused Rwanda of backing the rebel group and last month said it had detained two Rwandan soldiers in its eastern region, holding this as proof of Kigali's involvement.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing the M23.
On Wednesday, the DRC's army spokesman in eastern North Kivu province, General Sylvain Ekenge, accused Rwanda of fielding hundreds of troops beyond its borders.
"Rwanda has changed the uniform of its soldiers to conceal its presence in Congolese territory alongside the terrorists of M23," he said.
Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told AFP: "We have no interest in a crisis and will not respond to baseless accusations."
Relations between the DRC and Rwanda have been strained since the mass arrival in the eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The M23, a primarily Congolese Tutsi group, is one of more than 120 armed groups roaming eastern DRC.
It briefly captured North Kivu's capital Goma in late 2012 before the army quelled the rebellion the following year.
But M23 resumed fighting late last year, accusing the Congolese government of failing to respect a 2009 agreement under which its fighters were to be incorporated into the army.
M23 rebels wounded three United Nations peacekeepers in North Kivu in an attack this week, the UN said on Wednesday.
