Gunfire rang out early yesterday across parts of Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), hours after Rwanda-backed rebels said they had seized the city despite the UN Security Council’s call for an end to the offensive.
The recent advance by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel alliance has forced thousands from their homes and triggered fears that a decades-old simmering conflict risks reigniting a broader regional war.
“There is confusion in the city; here near the airport, we see soldiers. I have not seen the M23 yet,” one resident said. “There are also some cases of looting of stores.”
Photo: AP
Another resident of the city said there was heavy shooting in the center of Goma.
Residents said gunfire could also be heard near the airport and near the border with Rwanda.
It was not immediately possible to determine who was responsible for the shooting, but one resident said they were likely to be warning shots, not fighting.
The rebels had ordered government soldiers to surrender by 3am yesterday and 100 Congolese soldiers had handed their weapons in to Uruguayan troops in the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, also known as MONUSCO, Uruguay’s military said.
MONUSCO staff and their families were evacuating across the border to Rwanda yesterday morning, where 10 buses were waiting to pick them up.
Kenyan President William Ruto, chairman of the East African Community bloc, is to hold an emergency meeting for heads of state on the situation, Kenyan Principal Secretary of Foreign Affairs Korir Sing’Oei said.
The eastern borderlands of DR Congo remain a tinder-box of rebel zones and militia fiefdoms in the wake of two successive regional wars stemming from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 — the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements — says it exists to protect DR Congo’s ethnic Tutsi population.
The UN Security Council held crisis talks on Sunday.
UN experts said Rwanda has deployed 3,000 to 4,000 troops and provided significant firepower, including missiles and snipers, to support the M23 in fighting in DR Congo.
The US, France and the UK on Sunday condemned what they said was Rwanda’s backing of the rebel advance.
Kigali dismissed statements that “did not provide any solutions” and blamed Kinshasa for triggering the recent escalation.
“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,” the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said.
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