The rebel fighters claim they are open to talking with the Government, as their motive is the country.

“We are fighting for Congo. We are not fighting for minerals, we are not fighting for anything (else),” Corneille Nangaa, one of the M23’s political leaders, said during a briefing held on Thursday in Goma, a city under their control.

Nangaa added that President Felix Tshisekedi destroyed the Army, he destroyed the police, he destroyed the administration, and above all, he cannibalized justice in the DRC, which is why they will continue until they get to Kinshasa, the Africa News website informed.

He insisted that it was not a fight to get the minerals of this region, but a fight to restore the State and “give food to the people”. Their goal, he added, is to allow people to live together in peace but also to create opportunities for the region and for the world.

The M23 called on the people of Goma city to go about their daily lives while the rebels worked to facilitate humanitarian aid. Electricity was restored in some parts of the city on Thursday, but water shortages persist.

Emerged in 2012 after a failed 2009 peace accord between the DRC and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), the M23 is a Tutsi-led rebel group with an estimated 8000 fighters, The Soufan Center stated.

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