DRC troops said to have surrendered to M23, escorted to training camp

Hundreds of Congolese soldiers, members of government-allied militias and police officers were seen piled into trucks guarded by M23 rebels in Goma early Thursday.

The M23 said they were transporting the troops - who they said had surrendered - to an undisclosed location where they would be integrated into their ranks.

“We are sending them to training centres where they will be trained on the importance of the army, and then they will become full members of the revolution," said an M23 political leader, Corneille Nangaa.

He added that soldiers who no longer wanted to fight, would be allowed to return to civilian life, but that some were ready to join M23.

Two men waiting to board the trucks, who said they were Congolese soldiers, told a journalist they had surrendered and that they had no other choice but to join the insurgents.

The Rwanda-backed militia has cemented its control over the eastern city of Goma since entering the provincial capital on Sunday.

On Thursday, the rebels said they planned to take their fight to the far-off capital, Kinshasa.

The comment came hours after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called for a massive military mobilisation to resist the rebellion.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the DRC said basic services are largely paralysed in Goma.

The city is a critical humanitarian hub for more than six million people displaced by the conflict in eastern Congo.

UN experts say the M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma.

The M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of the DRC’s mineral-rich east.

It holds vast deposits, estimated to be worth $24 trillion, that are critical to much of the world’s electronics industry, including mobile phones and laptops.