M23 warns DRC gorvenment to stop using it as a scapegoat to it's insecurities and political problems.

An Update of the March 23 Movement on the National Government's allegations, this former rebel movement says it will not serve as a scapegoat for the DRC Government's flagrant inability to assume its own responsibilities in securing from Kivu-Ituri.
"We read with amazement on social networks the false allegations contained in the report of the 46th ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the Central Government held in Kinshasa on Friday August 28, 2020 reporting the creation in the Province of South Kivu by some alleged ex-members of the M23 of a militia called Association for the Balkanization of the DRC and to have hoisted the flag of the “Republic of Kivu”, ”can be read in this update made on August 29, 2020 and signed by the President of the March 23 Movement, Bertrand BISIMWA.
The Movement is keeping in its press release its commitments contained in the declarations signed on December 12, 2013 in Nairobi and asks the Congolese Government to respect its own commitments made in the presence of 5 Heads of State of the member countries of the ICGLR and of SADC in the same occasion at the State House of Kenya in Nairobi.
The March 23 Movement does not currently have any ex-combatants in the Province of South Kivu apart from those repatriated without our knowledge by the Government of the Republic since 2014 and whose location of redeployment we do not know.
The M23 says it followed in May and June 2020 the arrest in the town of Bukavu by the ANR of senior officials of certain well-known politicians, including the PPRD, accused of having hoisted the flag of the "Republic of Kivu".
"These people are not members of M23 at all," the statement read.
The M23 deplores the fact that the current Government has found it difficult to shake off the influence of members of the former administration on the Nairobi commitments in particular and the peace process in the east of the country in general: refusal to apply its own commitments; duplication of peace interlocutors to sabotage the Nairobi process; demonization and multiplication of fortuitous accusations in the media against our Movement as if the Government were in search of the legitimization of the military option.
The M23 says that when they left Congolese territory on November 5, 2013 to facilitate the final return of peace, eastern DRC had 44 armed groups. In December 2019, a United Nations expert report counted more than 139 armed groups there. In July 2020 their number increased to 154.
"Are these armed groups the work of the March 23 Movement?" Asks the movement.
The M23 says that since the end of 2013, the Congolese government has failed to disarm or neutralize a single armed group.
"On the other hand, the old and the new armed groups consolidate their positions but do not question the established power from which they enjoy preferential treatment and often serve as auxiliaries to the National Army," underlines the movement.
According to M23, "the Congolese government does not have any serious Disarmament, Demobilization and Social Reintegration Program to accompany the Head of State's appeal to the various armed groups. From Ituri to South Kivu via North Kivu, the thousands of ex-combatants who responded to the call of the Head of State Félix Antoine TSHISEKEDI TSHILOMBO to lay down their arms and surrender to the FARDC n soon became disillusioned. Abandoned to their sad fate in their cantonment where they were left to hunger, disease and bad weather, they were quite simply forced to return to their maquis. "
And to wonder: "What testimony will they give to encourage the other combatants to lay down their arms? "
This former rebel movement says it refuses to take responsibility for the Congolese government's lack of will to restore peace and security in Kivu-Ituri.
"We have expressed to the Head of State, through several correspondence, our readiness to return to the country in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the relevant Recommendations made by the Heads of State of the member countries of the ICGLR and SADC during their various summits in Brazzaville and Luanda; We affirmed our willingness to make our contribution for the pacification of Kivu-Ituri; However, we feel like we are preaching in the wilderness, ”the M23 said in their update.
This is why he invites the Government of the Republic to stop making scapegoats on the head of the M23 to create a diversion from its own turpitudes.
“He should face the evidence of Kivu-Ituri's expressed will to break definitively with a dark past marked by wars and humanitarian tragedies. Kivu-Ituri simply requires special attention from the Head of State and his Government toeffectively conduct a vast contextualized multisectoral program for its stabilization and reconstruction, ”concluded the statement on this movement.