Rwandan-backed M23 rebels enter DR Congo’s Goma city
Rwandan-backed rebels have marched into east Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest city Goma and DR Congolese troops exchanged fire with the Rwandan military across the border in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.
A rebel alliance led by the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 militia said it had seized the lakeside city of over two million people, a major hub for displaced people and aid groups lying on the border with Rwanda and last occupied by M23 in 2012.
The deep pounding of heavy artillery fire and rapid rat-a-tat of gunshots could be heard in a video of Goma airport, posted on social media and verified by Reuters, that showed unidentified armed men running on airport grounds.
“We can still hear gunfire coming from the airport. A rocket landed close to the church, behind our house,” said one resident, speaking from Goma’s northeast Majengo neighbourhood.
Residents reported hearing or seeing clashes between government-aligned militia and M23 fighters in other areas too.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, told Reuters his forces were in control of Goma. “They (army soldiers) have started to surrender but it takes time,” he said.
This could not be independently verified and it was unclear if the whole city was under M23 control.
DR Congo accused Rwanda of sending troops into its territory and threatening “carnage”.
The government urged residents to stay at home and refrain from looting.
Rwanda said fighting near the border threatened its security, requiring “a sustained defensive posture”.
Rwanda’s army later said DR Congolese shelling had killed five people and injured 26 in the town of Rubavu, near the border, and Rwanda would respond in order to protect its civilians.
DR Congolese soldiers positioned on Mount Goma, a hill within the city, exchanged artillery fire with Rwandan troops on the other side of the border, in the town of Gisenyi, according to two United Nations sources speaking from a UN site between the two.
A Reuters reporter in Gisenyi saw columns of people fleeing, some holding children by hand or carrying heavy bags.
One man had a mattress on his head.
Gunfire could be heard in the background.
Unverified videos posted on social media showed local residents looting merchandise outside the airport customs warehouse.
Adding to the chaos, thousands of inmates broke free from Goma’s main prison, a prison official said.
Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by recent fighting or earlier conflict have sought refuge in Goma and in surrounding camps.
The arrival of M23 rebels in the city risks causing a new displacement and humanitarian crisis.
In the DR Congolese town of Bukavu, about 200km south of Goma on the opposite end of Lake Kivu, thousands of people demonstrated against what they described as Rwandan aggression.
Roughly the size of western Europe, the DR Congo is home to 100 million people and its plentiful mineral supplies have long been coveted by foreign companies as well as by armed groups.
Its eastern borderlands are a tinderbox of rebel and militia fiefdoms stemming from two regional wars after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, when Hutu extremists murdered close to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Many Hutus, some of them genocide perpetrators and others refugees, fled into DR Congo after the genocide, which is one of the root causes of instability there.
The UN has warned that the M23 offensive risks spiralling into a broader regional war.
Kenya said that DR Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame had agreed to attend an online meeting on Wednesday.
On Monday, DR Congo reacted with fury to criticism from overseas, presenting itself as victim rather than aggressor.
“The righteous international community is back, issuing statements asking for the targets of ethnic violence to exercise restraint,” said government press secretary Stephanie Nyombarire in a post on X, accusing Rwanda’s critics of forgetting the lessons of the genocide.
DR Congo accuses Rwanda of using M23 to control swathes of DR Congolese territory for the purpose of looting minerals, which officials in Kigali deny.
UN experts said M23 had conquered Rubaya, the largest coltan mine in the Great Lakes region, and exported at least 150 tonnes of coltan, which is used in smartphones, via Rwanda.
M23 last captured Goma in 2012 but withdrew days later after an agreement brokered by neighbouring countries.
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