M23 rebels strengthen grip on Goma amid isolated gunfire

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo — The US told Rwanda it was “deeply troubled” by the fall of Goma in eastern DRC to Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, who appeared on Wednesday to have consolidated control over the city of nearly 2-million in just two days.

Isolated bursts of gunfire sounded through some outlying districts of the lakeside city, where Monday’s rebel storming left bodies lying in the streets, hospitals overwhelmed and UN peacekeepers sheltering in their bases.

The rebels seized the city’s international airport on Tuesday, which could cut off the main route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of displaced people in eastern DRC, where conflict has raged on and off for decades.

Washington urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to consider unspecified measures to halt the offensive, and the AU demanded the immediate withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas.

In a post on X, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said he had agreed on the need for a ceasefire in a phone call with US secretary of state Marco Rubio but gave no indication of bowing to demands for a withdrawal from Goma.

Rubio told Kagame Washington was “deeply troubled” by the escalation, which is the worst in more than a decade, and urged respect for “sovereign territorial integrity”, the US state department said.

A resident of the northern Majengo neighbourhood said militias known as Wazalendo, allied with the government since 2022 to resist M23 advances in the hinterlands, appeared to be active in the area.

“There are some sporadic shots that are heard here in the neighbourhood. They are certainly Wazalendo,” the resident said.

The eight-member East African Community, of which DRC and Rwanda are both members, was due to hold an emergency summit on the crisis Wednesday evening. A Rwandan government source said Kagame would attend. DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi was not expected to participate, according to a source at the presidency and a regional diplomat.

DRC’s presidency said Tshisekedi would address the nation later on Wednesday in his first public comments since the rebels marched on Goma.

M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed insurgencies that have roiled DRC since the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda 30 years ago, when Hutu extremists killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and then were toppled by the Tutsi-led forces led by Kagame.

Rwanda says some of the ousted perpetrators have been sheltering in DRC since the genocide, posing a threat to Congolese Tutsis and Rwanda itself. DRC rejects Rwanda’s complaints, and says Rwanda has used its proxy militias to loot lucrative minerals such as coltan, which is used in smartphones.

The Congolese and Rwandan army exchanged fire across their shared border on Monday, with Rwanda reporting at least nine deaths.

At a stadium in Goma on Tuesday, hundreds of unarmed government soldiers and militia fighters sat on the football pitch while others lined up in what M23 fighters described as a disarmament process, according to an unverified video.

Bertrand Bisimwa, who leads the M23’s political wing, said on X that the last pockets of resistance in Goma had been put down and that the rebels were working to guarantee “total security”.

A Goma resident living in an upscale part of the city said the situation was surreal: “It feels like we are in a dual nation. We are in Congo and at the same time in Rwanda,” the resident said on Tuesday, declining to be identified for fear of reprisals.

DRC and the head of UN peacekeeping have said Rwandan troops are present in Goma, backing their M23 allies. Rwanda has said it is defending itself against the threat from DRC militias, without directly commenting on whether its troops have crossed the border.

M23 captured Goma in 2012 during its last major insurgency but withdrew after a few days after intense international pressure and threats to withdraw aid to Rwanda.

Analysts and diplomats say that level of pressure is unlikely to materialise this time due to a reluctance by world powers to fully confront Rwanda, which has positioned itself as a stable partner in a tumultuous region.

In the DRC capital, Kinshasa, 1,600km west of Goma, protesters attacked a UN compound and embassies including those of Rwanda, France and the US on Tuesday, angered at what they said was foreign interference.

Goma’s four main hospitals have treated at least 760 wounded people, medical and humanitarian sources said on Tuesday, cautioning that an accurate death toll could not be established since many people were dying outside hospitals.

The UN humanitarian office also said it had received reports of rapes committed by fighters.

The manager of one hospital in Goma said the situation was very difficult.

“We had to drain [petrol] from ambulances to power the generator because there are people on respirators,” the hospital manager said. “The injuries are often very severe. Some people die before they even get there.”

Reuters