Who are M23?

Rebel groups and violent conflicts are far too common in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the heart of this violence are continuing wars that are fuelled by the country’s vast mineral wealth, with various groups taking advantage of the anarchy to plunder copper, cobalt, gold and diamonds. Between 1994 and 2003, millions of people were killed or forced to flee from conflicts that continuously leave death and destruction in its wake. DR Congo has had and still has its fair share of rebel groups, each fighting for one thing or other, but none has been as prominent as M23 – or the March 23 Movement. The group – a Tutsi rebellion - had long accused the Congolese government of marginalising the country's ethnic Tutsi minority and aimed to fight a DR Congo-based Hutu-majority militia group, called FDLR - The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. And this has led to bad blood between Rwanda and DR Congo, with both countries trading accusations of supporting one rebel group each. M23 was driven out of DR Congo in 2013, but now they are back and have renewed its fighting with the Congolese army. This is a complex issue and so to explain and help make sense of it, Ferdinand Omondi has been speaking with Samba Cyuzuzo, a BBC reporter who covers the region and is today asking – who are the M23 group and what do they want in the eastern DR Congo? Guest: Samba Cyuzuzo, BBC Great Lakes reporter