Goma, the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has seen a major blow to the Congolese army and a serious escalation in the years-long conflict that has resulted in hundreds of people being killed and millions of people being internally. The rebels, supported by Rwanda-backed M23, have tightened their hold on the country.
On Sunday, March 23 Movement (M23) fighters entered Goma and claimed to have taken control of the city the following day. More than 100 people have been killed and nearly 1, 000 have been wounded in Goma as a result of three days of fighting between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and the armed Congolese army.
On Wednesday, while fighting in the city had largely eased, intermittent gunfire continued in the Goma’s northern areas, including Katoyi, Mabanga, Majengo, Kibwe and Turunga, where the situation “remains tense”, according to local DRC media outlets.
In a post on X, Bertrand Bisimwa, the head of M23’s political wing, said the group’s fighters were in the process of bringing “the last pockets of insecurity]in Goma] … under control”.
According to Bisimwa, “Our army is working hard to ensure total security, complete tranquility, and definitive peace, as is the case for all of their fellow citizens living in liberated zones.”
Residents of Goma discovered that Rwandan troops and the M23 armed group had taken control of the airport and the majority of the city center and neighborhoods as they walked out of their homes on Wednesday.
“After days of heavy fighting, there’s no audible sound of gunfire in the city centre and the streets normally packed with cars during rush hour and the bustling markets are relatively empty”, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said, reporting from Kenya, citing Goma residents.
Rwanda’s regional ambassador Vincent Karega stated in a phone interview with AFP that the armed group would continue to attack Goma.
“They]M23] will continue into South Kivu, because Goma cannot be an end on its own, unless in between they get good dialogue and negotiation with the government in Kinshasa, which I doubt”.
He added that it is “possible” M23 fighters could press beyond eastern DRC because DRC’s “forces and military capabilities” are “concentrated in Goma”.
According to five diplomatic and security sources, M23 fighters were heading southward on Wednesday, heading for Bukavu, South Kivu’s capital.
The report could not be independently verified.
Humanitarian crisis
The United Nations has warned of potential mass displacement, severe food shortages, overburdened hospitals, and disease outbreaks, as well as several international aid organizations.
The team at Kyeshero Hospital, according to a statement from Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), is also continuing to treat the influx of injured patients there.
“At Kyeshero Hospital, a bullet pierced the roof of the operating theatre during an operation”, said Virginie Napolitano, MSF’s emergency coordinator in North Kivu.
“Many of our equipment and medicine stocks have been looted, putting in a strain on our medical assistance both inside and outside of Goma. Our Goma colleagues have also been impacted by armed looting. One of them was shot in the head during an attack at home.
The “devastating” impact of the fighting in and around Goma on civilians also sprang to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“We are receiving a lot of calls from people who feel abandoned and alone,” according to the company. Humanitarian workers must have safe access to meet people’s most urgent needs, such as food, healthcare, electricity and safe drinking water”, said Francois Moreillon, head of the ICRC’s delegation in the DRC, calling on the parties to the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law.
According to Shelley Thakral, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme, “the supply of food into the city could be significantly hampered depending on the length of the violence.”
In the eastern DRC, there are dozens of armed organizations. Rwanda has been accused of supporting the organization by the DRC, the UN, and a number of other nations, a claim that Kigali denies.
The organization claims to be fighting for the rights of the minority Tutsi population in the DRC. It emerged in 2012 after a group from the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC) broke away, complaining of ill-treatment.
After putting mounting international pressure on Rwanda, including the suspension of aid from the United States and the United Kingdom, the M23 captured Goma and held it for about a week before handing it over to the M23.
However, the DRC faced a resurgence of M23 violence in 2022. Since then, the group has advanced in Goma, seizing territory from the Congolese army and conducting two peacekeeping operations, SADC and UN.
Rwandan troops are active in Goma, according to the DRC and the UN peacekeeping mission’s leader, and they back M23. Without addressing directly whether Rwanda’s troops have crossed the border, Rwanda has asserted that it is defending itself from the threat of Congolese militias.
Growing calls for ceasefire
While some nations, including Belgium, have also issued DRC travel advisories, the US and other European countries have called for a ceasefire. Rwanda should stop supporting M23, according to the UN.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and “urged for an immediate ceasefire” in the region.
Kagame acknowledged the need to end the conflict’s root causes and ensure a ceasefire in the eastern DRC.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, however, will not attend an emergency virtual meeting with Kagame that had been scheduled for Wednesday, according to Congolese state media.
According to state broadcaster RTNC, he is instead scheduled to address the audience on Wednesday, making his first public address since M23 entered Goma.
According to Al Jazeera’s Webb, Goma citizens will continue to struggle until the fighting is over.
“Over the last couple of days, thousands of people have crossed to Gisenyi, the adjoining city in neighbouring Rwanda. Many others have remained in Goma”, he said.
He noted that the internet has been shut down in the majority of locations and that the electricity has been off for at least five days.
“Certainly for many people … times are very tough”, he added.
A statement on the violence in eastern DRC was also released by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a global think tank dedicated to bringing an end to deadly conflict. It claimed that negotiations are urgently needed to stop bloodshed from spreading.
“Left unchecked, the fighting could spread throughout the Great Lakes region, recalling the horrors of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when millions died amid a multi-country war in the Congo”, it said.
Source: Aljazeera
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