Over half a million people have reportedly been displaced by the battle raging between Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) security forces and M23 insurgents for control of Goma, a strategic city in the eastern Congo.
DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wager said the “humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate” after M23 rebels launched a major offensive at the beginning of January.
On Monday, the rebels entered Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. Over a dozen peacekeepers working for MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping mission to the Congo, were killed, along with government soldiers, allied militia fighters, and civilians.
As of Tuesday, much of the city was under M23’s control, including the airport. U.N. personnel remaining in the city have been instructed to shelter in their bases while rebel forces rampage through the streets.
Some government forces have surrendered, some retreated from the city, and a few are dug into defensive positions. Residents reported nearly constant gunfire across the city on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, security officials conceded the DRC military had lost the battle to control Goma’s airport – a defeat that will cut off both resupply to government forces and humanitarian aid.
“There are real risks of breakdown of law and order in the city, given the proliferation of weapons,” warned U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“The situation in Goma requires urgent and coordinated international action,” MONUSCO deputy special representative Vivian van de Perre told the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on Monday.
“These attacks continue to ravage the city, killing, injuring, traumatizing and displacing civilians and exacerbating the crisis,” van de Perre said.
U.N. humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said “heavy small arms fire and mortar fire” were reported across Goma, along with “the presence of many dead bodies in the streets.”
Laerke relayed reports of “rapes committed by fighters” and “looting of property,” along with attacks on “humanitarian health facilities.” Hospitals still in operation have been overwhelmed by casualties.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said civilians with bullet and shrapnel wounds have been transported to Goma’s hospitals by bus, motorcycle, and stretcher. Some of the wounded have been “forced to wait lying on the floor because of the lack of space.”
The ICRC condemned the use of artillery against densely populated areas for causing a huge number of civilian casualties, including artillery fire against refugee camps.
“The parties to the conflict must abide by international humanitarian law, taking care always to spare civilians and their property. They must also take every possible measure to minimize the humanitarian consequences of their military operations,” said Francois Moreillon, head of ICRC operations in the Congo.
“We are getting a large number of calls from injured and wounded people who feel lost and abandoned. Humanitarian workers must have safe access to meet people’s most urgent needs, such as food, health care, electricity and safe drinking water,” he said.
Moreillon also condemned the looting of medical warehouses and issued a disturbing warning about threats to a laboratory where samples of dangerous germs are kept, including Ebola.
“Should it be hit in any way by shells which could affect the integrity of the structure, this could potentially allow germs to escape, representing a major public health issue well beyond the borders,” he cautioned.
Goma was already struggling to deal with thousands of internally displaced persons (IDP) driven from the eastern Congo by the rebel advance. Those IDPs are now displaced once again, fleeing from Goma to seek refuge at U.N. bases. Many have fled across the border into Rwanda, which is actively assisting the M23 insurgency.
Both the U.N. and DRC officials confirmed Rwandan troops entered Goma along with the M23 insurgents on Monday. International observers also accuse Rwanda of arming and training the rebels, who are suspiciously well-equipped and disciplined for a band of extremists living in the far reaches of the Congo. Captured M23 rebels have said they were trained by Rwandan special forces officers.
“There was no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Wednesday.
Protesters in the DRC marched against Rwanda’s involvement in the war, setting fires around the Rwandan embassy in Kinshasa on Tuesday:
“What Rwanda is doing is with the complicity of France, the U.S. and Belgium. The Congolese people are fed up. How many times do we have to die?” one protester asked, as angry crowds also formed around the French, Kenyan, Dutch, Belgian, Ugandan, and American embassies. Uganda has its own entanglements with some of the many armed factions in the eastern Congo.
Rwandan officials claimed their soldiers entered Goma to protect Rwandan interests against tribal extremists lurking there. Rwanda’s government, like the M23 insurgency, is dominated by members of the Tutsi tribe, which was targeted for genocide by its enemies in the Hutu tribe in the 1990s.
“This 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,” the Rwandan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
The Foreign Ministry rejected allegations that Rwanda funded, trained, and directed the rebel assault on Goma as “misguided or manipulative.”
The Rwandans, in turn, accused DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his top officials in North Kivu of collaborating with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia whose membership includes perpetrators of the 1990s genocide.
The New York Times (NYT) noted on Tuesday that the Rwanda-Congo conflict is making Western leaders very uncomfortable because Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been the toast of the international community ever since the Tutsi genocide. Rwanda has also been helpful in regional counter-terrorism operations and it looks like a much safer bet for economic and political investment than the DRC, a poor nation that constantly struggles with disease, famine, and political upheaval.
Kagame has held power for decades and over the past two years has marched up to four thousand troops across the border to collude with the ultra-violent M23 extremists in a war of conquest against the DRC.
Their past history with Kagame and Rwanda — not to mention a big minerals deal the European Union (EU) signed with Rwanda in 2024 — could make the U.N. and EU reluctant to apply sanctions.
Former U.N. adviser Dino Mahtani told the New York Times:
Powerful Western countries have for long been reticent about punishing Rwanda, which cultivated a reputation as a donor darling. While some are now finally demanding Kagame pull back support to M23, they are unlikely to take action against what they see as the military solution against jihadis in Mozambique.
The Trump administration does not appear to share that reluctance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with both Kagame and Tshisekedi since the assault on Goma began. On Monday, he told Tshisekedi the United States respects the “sovereignty of the DRC” and condemns the assault on Goma.
On Tuesday, Rubio told Kagame the United States is “deeply troubled by the escalation of the ongoing conflict in the eastern DRC, particularly the fall of Goma to the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group.”
Rubio told Kagame the United States wants an “immediate ceasefire in the region, and for all parties to respect sovereign territorial integrity.”
Read the full article here
