Thousands of people have fled their homes in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as clashes between M23 rebels and government forces intensify.
The Rwanda-backed armed group has captured a string of towns over the last few days, encircling the provincial capital Goma. Several Western countries have called for their citizens to evacuate.
M23 rebels are battling the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) on several fronts around key city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, notably in Sake and Kibumba, towns 20km away.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced around the outskirts of Goma, which was briefly captured by the M23 in 2012.
Late Friday, the UK, US and France urged their citizens to leave the city, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly.
Haguma Banga is walking with a mattress on his head. After fleeing Sake, he has had no news from his family. “I don’t know where my wife and five children are. It would be a miracle to find them again,” he told RFI’s correspondent.
Hundreds injured in shelling
Staff from humanitarian organisations have seen an increase in the number of civilians wounded by explosives in the past month.
“Since the first days of January, we have been faced with an influx of war wounded,” Doctors without Borders (MSF) representative Emmanuel Lampaert told RFI. “In the hospital centres of Masisi, Minova and Numbi, staff have counted around 400 injured,” he said, adding that Goma and Bukavu hospitals have reached capacity.
Neema Jeannette, a patient at the CBCA Ndosho hospital in Goma, said: “A bomb fell on us. We were a group of women, several died instantly. I am the only survivor.”
Throughout the week, helicopter gunships deployed by the Congolese army were seen swooping low over the plains, firing volleys of rockets as troops moved towards the front lines.
The army on Tuesday acknowledged the M23’s capture of Minova in South-Kivu province. Masisi, in North Kivu province also fell earlier this month.
At the end of 2013, the FARDC had driven the Tutsi-led armed group out of the last positions it occupied in the mountains of North Kivu.
But the M23 resurfaced at the end of 2021 and have seized key towns since April 2024 – allegedly with support from Rwandan forces, although Kigali denies involvement and says it is committed to a ceasefire and peace talks.
Communications down
According to information obtained by RFI, mortar shells coming from an area controlled by the M23 hit a position held by the UN peacekeeping mission Monusco in Sake on Thursday evening.
This incident caused minor injuries to three peacekeepers, sources told RFI.
The personnel deployed by the UN mission are limited to defensive actions as part of their mandate to protect civilians, and do not have a mandate for full combat.
On top of the clashes, communications were cut on Thursday in the Sake and Goma areas, RFI correspondents reported. Congolese authorities, the United States and United Nations experts have repeatedly accused Rwanda of manipulating GPS signals by jamming communications or transmitting false signals in the region.
Despite support from the Wazalendos, the allied self-defence groups from the DRC capital Kinshasa, and troops sent by the Southern African Community (SADC), the FARDC appears to be losing its grip on the region.
Remi Dodd, a sub-Saharan Africa analyst at geopolitical intelligence firm RANE Network highlighted the challenges faced by the army: “Corruption, inadequate equipment, low morale and also low discipline.”
Call for sanctions
The Congolese Communication Minister, Patrick Muyaya, told RFI that fighting has intensified since the failure to hold the Luanda peace talks between the DRC and Rwanda in December.
The DRC rejects Rwanda’s call for direct talks between M23 and the Congolese government, calling it a red line.
Muyaya says the international community, and in particular France, has a responsibility to launch “targeted sanctions” against Rwanda for its implication in the conflict.
Meanwhile this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “alarmed by the resumption of hostilities since the beginning of the year,” according to a statement released on Thursday.
“This offensive has a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war,” he added, demanding the violence “immediately cease”.
The number of displacements is now over 400,000 people this year alone, Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday. “That’s almost double the number reported last week.”
RFI
