AFC/M23 has warned that it will strike military threats “at their source” if attacks on civilians continue, after saying it destroyed a drone command centre at Kisangani Airport over the weekend.
The warning comes after it carried out the operation between January 31 and February 1, targeting what it described as “the primary hub for the planning, coordination, and execution of deadly operations targeting civilian populations” and its positions in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The group said the facility was used to direct aerial operations in several areas, including Minembwe, Masisi, Walikale, Rutshuru, Lubero, Kalehe and Mwenga, adding that it would “never stand idly by while innocent civilians are systematically targeted.”
Commenting on the strike, AFC/M23 coordinator Corneille Nangaa said violence reported since January 22 in Minembwe and the High Plateaus marked “the moral and strategic failure of the Kinshasa regime.”
He accused the authorities of deploying “Sukhoi aircraft, combat drones and coalition forces” against civilians, saying such actions “will not remain without response.”
“The monopoly of technological terror is definitively broken,” Nangaa said, adding that the attack on Kisangani Airport “traced a red line” and rendered obsolete what he described as the government’s reliance on aerial superiority.
He said AFC/M23 was activating a doctrine of pre-emptive defence. “From now on, any aerial vector deployed against the populations of the liberated zones will be neutralised at its source,” Nangaa said. “Every threat will be struck at its point of origin.”
The group said the use of Kisangani as a rear base for military operations against its territories was now prohibited, declaring that “the sanctuarisation of this base is over.”
In its communiqué, AFC/M23 called on the Congolese government to choose between peace and war, saying that if it chose peace it must “strictly respect the ceasefire,” and if it chose war it would “bear full responsibility and all the consequences that may result.”
Nangaa said the movement remained open to dialogue. “If Tshisekedi wants dialogue, we are ready,” he said. “If he wants war, he must accept all the consequences.”
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