M23 continues to seize villages despite negotiations in Doha, Congolese army warns it reserves ‘right to respond’

KINSHASA, DR Congo Fighting was reported Monday in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province, despite ongoing peace talks in Qatar.

Witnesses said a group of young volunteers backed by the Congolese army was attacked in the mountainous, resource-rich Fizi region by Twirwaneho and Red Tabara rebels, who are affiliated with the M23 group.

“It was the Twirwaneho who came to attack the Patriots and the Congolese armed forces here … They are burning houses, and the fighting has been ongoing since 6 a.m.,” local resident Mauridi Mtoca told Anadolu.

The violence came as Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has agreed to sit at the negotiating table with the M23 rebels. Delegations from both sides are currently in Doha for peace talks.

Despite both parties issuing statements calling for a ceasefire, clashes have continued in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, with M23 rebels seizing an increasing number of villages.

On Sunday, M23 forces seized the town of Lunyasenge on the western shore of Lake Edward in eastern Congo. The fighting left 17 people dead, including seven Congolese soldiers.

Col. Mak Hazukay, spokesman for the Congolese army in the region, condemned the M23 attacks on Sunday, calling them “a deliberate and blatant violation of the ceasefire and all measures put in place following the ongoing talks in Doha, Qatar, and Washington, United States.”

Hazukay warned that the army reserves “the right to respond in all directions if the threat from the rebels and their Rwandan allies continues.”

M23, central to the conflict in eastern Congo, has stepped up its offensive since December, capturing key towns including Goma and Bukavu.

Kinshasa and others accuse neighboring Rwanda of supporting M23 -- a claim Kigali denies.

In March, Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame agreed to a ceasefire during talks mediated by the Emir of Qatar in Doha.

In April, Congo’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart, Olivier Nduhungirehe, signed a US-brokered declaration in Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended the signing ceremony.

According to the UN, more than 7.8 million people have been displaced in the conflict. In April, the UN Human Rights Council said 602 people were victims of extrajudicial or summary executions in North and South Kivu in just two months. By Byobe Malenga, Anadolu Agency 

Artificial intelligence (AI), one of the forum’s central themes, embodies both promise and peril. While AI can revolutionize the media by improving efficiency and expanding reach, it also risks spreading misinformation at scale and eroding public trust. As UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming warned, safeguarding the integrity of cyberspace requires global cooperation. Without it, the very technologies meant to improve our world may deepen the crises they were designed to solve.

Worldcoin has suffered a blow after the High Court ordered deletion of data it collected from Kenyans in 2023. Justice Roselyne Aburili while delivering her judgement today said the controversial biometric data collection exercise led by the crypto-based identification project Worldcoin was conducted without adherence to Kenya’s data protection laws

She said Worldcoin used financial inducements to obtain the data from Kenyans instead of applying the data protection principle of informed consent. This, the judge said was illegal, unconstitutional, and a gross violation of privacy rights. 

"There was lack of the data protection principle of informed consent, instead there was financial inducement, " the judge said.

The judge ordered Worldcoin to delete all the Kenyans Biometric data it unlawfully collected via its orb with immediate effect.

She also prohibited the company from further processing of such data without an adequate data protection impact assessment in place, or in lieu, valid consent. 

In her judgement, Justice Aburili directed the state sto publish guidelines on the commercial use of personal data.

The judgment comes few months after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga ordered the closure of the Worldcoin inquiry with no police action after months of probe. 

This directive paved the way for its return to operations across the country.

Initially, the National Assembly Ad Committee of Inquiry into the Worldcoin operations heard that the crypto wallet app came into Kenya disguised as a research project.

Presenting its views amid investigations into the controversial Worldcoin operations in Kenya, the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NCCCC) told the parliamentary committee that Worldcoin registered as a data controller in Kenya, allowing the company to determine how to use the collected data in the country. 

"We have noted obvious breaches of our data protection laws," the committee noted, adding that Kenya cannot compel them [World-coin] to comply with the country's regulatory laws as it lacks jurisdiction, considering it does not have physical offices here.

But the directorate of Criminal Investigations which was probing the firm found that Worldcoin activities in the country did not meet the threshold for any criminal charges.

Upon review of the file, the DPP directed that the file be closed with no further police action. By Nancy Gitonga, The Standard