Panic gripped Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily approaching the eastern Congolese city as they battled the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off in distant suburbs, and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought from nearby towns and villages to the main hospital.
The rebel group has been making significant advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, home to about two million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have staked out a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.
More than seven million people have been displaced by the fighting. Earlier this month, M23 captured the towns of Minova, Katale and Masisi west of Goma.
“The people of Goma, like other Congolese, have suffered greatly,” Lawrence Kanyuker, an M23 spokesman, told X, adding, “M23 is on the way to liberating them and they must be ready to welcome this liberation.”
M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for more than a week.
Schools in Goma sent students home on Thursday morning as news of the fighting spread.
“We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That is why we are told to go home,” said Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student. “We are constantly waiting for the bomb.”
Accused of supporting Rwandan rebels
Experts from the Congo, the United States and the United Nations have accused Rwanda of supporting the M23, which is mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who defected from the Congolese army a decade ago.
The Rwandan government has denied the claim but admitted last year that it has army and missile systems to protect its security in eastern Congo, pointing to the build-up of Congolese forces near the border. UN experts estimate that there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
On Wednesday, Congolese Communications Minister Patrick Muaya told French broadcaster France 24 that war with Rwanda was an “option to consider”.
Congolese authorities claimed on Thursday that the military had repelled an attack from the “Rwandan army”, a town just 23 kilometers from Goma. The Associated Press was unable to verify whether the Rwandan army took part in the offensive.
While the situation remains unclear, some residents claim that rebels have entered and taken over the town.
“The population is in panic. The M23 now controls large parts of the city,” said Leopold Moussa, president of the Small Area Citizens Society.
The U.S. Embassy in the Congolese capital Kinshasa warned in a statement on Thursday of an “intensification of armed conflict” and advised U.S. citizens in North Kivu province, which includes Goma, to take precautions if they need to evacuate their homes at short notice. let go
The UK has also issued a travel advisory which says the M23 is now controlled out of interest and urges British citizens to leave Goma while the road remains open.
The hospital extends to the limit
Many more residents have joined more than 178,000 people who have fled the M23 advance in the past two weeks.
The CBCA Ndosho Hospital in Goma was stretched to the limit on Thursday, with several hundred newly injured on Thursday.
Thousands of people fled the fighting by boat on Wednesday, heading north across Lake Kivu and spilling out of packed wooden boats in Goma, some with bundles of belongings strapped around their foreheads.
Nima Matondo said she fled at night when the first explosions started going off. He tears those around him to pieces. Shredded
“We escaped, but unfortunately” others did not, Matondo said.
Mariam Nasibu, who fled with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost a leg, blown away by the relentless shelling.
“As I was running away, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said in tears.
