Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) training at the Mubambiro camp in North Kivu province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 11.
Photographer: Arlette Bashizi/BloombergRwandan Meddling Is Deepening Congo's Deadly Conflict
Fighting involves scores of armed groups, deep ethnic tensions and at least five national armies, and has reached a peak not seen in at least a decade.
A soldier walks past the armored personnel carrier just as it sparks and smokes, sending a surface-to-air missile hurtling toward the United Nations drone filming it from above.
The location is 12 miles inside the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province. The soldiers manning the Chinese-made Type 92 Yitian vehicle are Rwandan, according to Western military analysts who viewed the drone footage seen by Bloomberg. They are deep in foreign territory where their government loudly proclaims they’re not active, fighting alongside brutal rebel forces it says it doesn’t support.