Rwandan-backed rebels, DRC troops clash in Goma

Goma — Rwandan-backed rebels marched into Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest eastern city, Goma, on Monday and troops from the East African neighbours exchanged fire over the border in the worst escalation of the long-running conflict for more than a decade.

The rebel alliance, spearheaded by the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 militia, said it had captured the lakeside city of more than 1-million people, which lies on the border with Rwanda and was also briefly occupied by M23 in 2012.

Gunfire rang out near the airport, in the city centre and on the border, with two residents reporting ongoing clashes between government-aligned militia and M23 fighters.

“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.

DRC 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 UN sources speaking from a site between the two.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has warned that the M23 offensive risks spiralling into a broader regional war.

A Reuters reporter in Gisenyi saw columns of people fleeing, some holding children by hand or carrying heavy bags. One man was carrying a mattress on his head. Gunfire could be heard in the background.

The DRC is home to 100-million people and roughly the size of Western Europe. Its plentiful mineral supplies are in the sights of Chinese and Western companies as well as multiple 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 1-million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Many Hutus, some of them genocide perpetrators and others refugees, fled into the DRC after the genocide, which is one of the root causes of instability there.

Rwanda accuses the DRC government and army of allying themselves with a Hutu-led militia that they say threatens Rwanda’s safety as well as Tutsis living in the DRC.

The DRC rejects Rwanda’s claims, accusing Kigali of arming M23 to control swathes of Congolese territory for the purpose of looting minerals. The Kinshasa government said Rwanda’s army was present in Goma but its forces would work to prevent “carnage and loss of human life”.

The M23, the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements backed by Rwanda, captured Goma in 2012 but withdrew days later after an agreement brokered by neighbouring nations.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, said his forces were in control of Goma. “They (army soldiers) have started to surrender, but it takes time,” he said.

‘Recreat the state’

In an interview before the offensive on Goma, Nangaa suggested the Congo River Alliance aspired to replace DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his government.

“Our objective is neither Goma nor Bukavu but Kinshasa, the source of all the problems,” he said, referring to the Congolese capital, more than 1,500km west of Goma.

“In Congo, we have a weak state or a non-state. Where all the armed groups have sprung up, it’s because there’s no state. We want to recreate the state.”

Tryphon Kin-Kiey Mulumba, chair of the Air Transport Authority, said early on Monday that the army still held the airport. This could not be independently verified.

Uruguay’s military said 100 DRC soldiers had handed weapons over to them at the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (Monusco) as requested by the rebels.

UN staff and their families were evacuating to Rwanda, where 10 buses were waiting.

Unverified videos shared on social media showed local residents looting merchandise outside the airport customs warehouse and columns of heavily armed men, believed to be M23 fighters, walking through the northern suburbs of the city.

Twenty-six DRC soldiers and one police officer had crossed the border and surrendered, Rwandan soldiers said.

The 2012 fall of Goma led to the deployment of a new offensive-minded UN force, an overhaul of the Congolese army, and diplomatic pressure on Rwanda, leading to the M23’s defeat the next year and a deal calling for its demobilisation.

But the group never fully disarmed and launched a fresh offensive in 2022 that has seen it capture vast swathes of mineral-rich North Kivu province, including lucrative mines that produce coltan, which is used in smartphones.

UN experts said Rwanda had deployed 3,000-4,000 troops and provided firepower, including missiles and snipers, to support the M23.

The rebels’ advance since the start of the year has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, on top of 3-million displaced in east DRC in 2024, according to the UN.

The UN Security Council held crisis talks on Sunday, with the US, France and Britain condemning what they said was Rwanda’s backing of the rebel advance.

Kigali dismissed statements that “did not provide any solutions” and accused the DRC government of sabotaging negotiations with the M23. Kinshasa rejects these allegations.

“The fighting close to the Rwandan border continues to present a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and territorial integrity, and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture,” Rwanda’s foreign ministry said.

Reuters