A rebel group backed by Rwanda on Monday announced the capture of the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a major victory for the group and one of the biggest conflicts between the two countries in recent years.
The militia, known as M23, briefly occupied Goma in 2012, but was defeated and laid low for nearly a decade. Now it’s back with a roar, aiming to take over the region in the long run and exploit its precious minerals, according to United Nations experts.
This time, M23 seems to be in a strong position to keep Goma, a city made up mostly of people who left their homes out of fear and will now have to live under the rule of one of the armed groups they fled.
The spokesman of M23 announced the “liberation of the city of Goma” in the text X, saying that the Congolese army should give the UN weapons and gather in the stadium before 3 am.
On Monday morning, unusual gunfire erupted in Goma. A line of military vans had been abandoned on a road that cut through half of the city. Residents say the Congolese soldiers left them there and fled in boats over Lake Kivu. Videos circulated on local WhatsApp groups of rebels marching through the city and a few civilians standing on the streets were welcomed, in what observers said may have been an attempt to kill the newly attacked army. Reports spread that the Goma prison had been opened and the prisoners released, but there was no independent evidence of that.
The conflict in eastern Congo – an area the size of Michigan – was once called the African World War. It has been going on since the 1990s, and has involved a number of armed groups, of which M23 is the most prominent.
The rebels plan to take over the region and take advantage of it for a long time, according to the UN and the United States, which say the group is supported and directed by Congo’s small neighbor Rwanda. Rwanda denies the charges.
The rebel advance on Goma, which began with an offensive in the region launched this month, has escalated rapidly in the past three weeks, prompting people to flee – and return – to the city.
On Sunday morning, thousands of people arrived in Goma from the northern areas of the city, some carrying the few clothes they managed to snatch from the cloths tied on their foreheads, others carrying children only a few days old. Many had already fled and were fleeing the bombs that had fallen near the camps. Others left their villages, which were caught up in the fighting between M23 and the Congolese army.
Camps on the outskirts of Goma that housed more than 300,000 people were completely evacuated within hours, the UN said.
On Friday, the military governor of North Kivu, whose capital is Goma province, was seriously injured on the battlefield, according to the Congolese army spokesman. The circumstances of his death have remained unclear, but a spokesman said the governor, General Peter Cirimwami, died while being taken to Kinshasa, the Congolese capital.
On Saturday, the United Nations peacekeeping team in Goma evacuated most of its staff from the city, putting them on buses to the airport with plans to fly to Entebbe, in neighboring Uganda.
In 2012, Rwanda came under intense international pressure to stop supporting M23, and as a result, the militia was defeated the following year. But it is unclear whether such pressure can be called for again, experts say. Rwanda has developed its relationship with the West since then, and is no longer heavily dependent on aid.
In an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, the United States and other members condemned Rwanda’s action, but stopped short of saying that it was punished. Bintou Keita, head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, told the meeting that three soldiers had been killed trying to protect Goma and the nearby town, Saké, on the M23. He also said that the rebels had closed the airspace over Goma.
In other words, we are stuck,” he said.
As the rebels approached Goma, the humanitarian situation worsened. More than 400,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of this year, according to the UN refugee agency, as M23 rebels have attacked new areas in North Kivu province, where Goma is located, and South Kivu. They joined the 4.6 million people already displaced in eastern Congo.
Nevertheless, people flock to Goma, often in long columns.
Others are pushing barrows and a few salvaged goods. Some had bicycles or carried mattresses on their heads and backs. Many of them had life-threatening injuries.
Myriam Favier, the head of the small team of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Goma, said that on Friday the day before, more than 100 people arrived within 24 hours at the hospital where she was working – the usual number of people arriving. throughout the month.
“They come from everywhere,” he said. “They come from all directions.”
Ms Favier described medical staff treating patients with mortar or shrapnel wounds and said the number of children with serious injuries had increased significantly. He appealed to those who use heavy guns to reduce their attacks, saying that many people came with head wounds and chest injuries to the extent that the hospital ran out of beds and had to put patients on mattresses in the parking lot.
Across Goma, schools have been turned into shelters for the homeless. Families gathered what they could to avoid going out.
Many people who fled were looking for a place to stay in Goma, knowing that it was in front of the rebels, but they had no other option.
As the city fell into the hands of the M23, they hid where they could, many of them hungry, cold or badly injured. Some sleep on the street, others in hospitals.
Solange Safi Ndakwinja was trying to look after her three daughters who were seriously injured by a bomb that exploded at a military checkpoint.
“My hope is that God will help us,” said Ms. Ndakwinja. “For others, we don’t know what will happen.”
Elian Peltier contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal, and Declan Walsh from Nairobi, Kenya.
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