DR Congo rebels change name, pledge to fend off army

KINSHASA, DRC: The M23, a DR Congo rebel group accused of unleashing fresh unrest in the country's east, said it has changed the name of its armed wing and is preparing to fend off expected new attacks by the army.

"The M23 army... is now named the Congolese Revolutionary Army (ARC)," the group's leader Jean-Marie Runiga said in a statement issued after a press conference Saturday.

The group, which has been accused by rights groups of raping women and girls and carrying out summary executions as it battles the regular army, was formed in May by former fighters in an ethnic Tutsi rebel group that was integrated into the military under a 2009 peace deal whose terms the mutineers claim were never fully implemented.

Runiga accused the army of collaborating with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group formed by ethnic Hutus who were soldiers in the Rwandan army before being forced out after the country's 1994 genocide.

The rebels pledged to fend off what they said were imminent attacks from their former colleagues in the regular army.

"We are watching the reinforcement of the FARDC (military) positions on the front line, where the FDLR and the FARDC are preparing what they call a final assault on out positions," said Runiga.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge