President Joseph Kabila and the Congolese Army Chief of Staff, General Didier Etumba, arrived in Goma on Monday to deal with the security threat posed by the defections of former rebels integrated in the army under a peace deal.

The Congolese government said on Thursday that “irregular troop movements” have been observed in North and South Kivu Provinces since last weekend. The troop movements are believed to be a show of force by General Ntaganda amid renewed calls for his arrest after his former boss in the FPLC, Thomas Lubanga, was convicted by the ICC on March 14

With only 6 weeks left before presidential and parliamentary elections, President Kabila, at a wide-ranging news conference on Tuesday, said that he is confident he will win re-election in November. “I know one thing for sure, I will not lose,” Mr. Kabila replied when asked if he thinks there is a candidate who could beat him.

The United Nations Security Council imposed targeted measures including travel bans and asset freezes on four Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) leaders and a former Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) commander integrated in the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), on Wednesday, at the request of the permanent missions to the United Nations of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

A report by a group of experts monitoring UN sanctions on the Democratic Republic of Congo has implicated former CNDP soldiers, now part of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), in the illegal exploitation of mineral resources in eastern Congo.

Warlord Laurent Nkunda, the eastern Congo rebel leader accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been arrested in Rwanda while fleeing a joint Congolese-Rwandan military operation to arrest him.

A United Nations panel of experts has once again accused Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and his government of supporting warlord Laurent Nkunda in his years-long killing spree in eastern Congo.

Four members of the government held a press conference on Wednesday to respond to the latest Human Rights Watch report on the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government spokesperson, Lambert Mende, challenged the rights group to provide proof of its allegations. He asked Human Rights Watch to list the names of political opponents who were allegedly killed by government agents in the last two years since the election of President Joseph Kabila.

Apolinaire Malu-Malu, the coordinator of the Amani Program, which resulted in the signing of the Goma peace accords between the government and rebel groups in January, has said in an interview with Belgian newspaper Le Soir that warlord Laurent Nkunda “has the power to annoy” but lacks the means to overthrow the government.

Listening to Laurent Nkunda’s recent rhetoric, one may think that the warlord has gone through elections, been elected, and now has a mandate to speak on behalf of a sizable portion of the Congolese population.