Rebels from the Democratic Republic of Congo have surrounded the eastern city of Goma, in one of the sharpest escalations in years of a conflict between the central African country and its neighbor Rwanda.
On Thursday, fighting raged between rebels from the M23 group supported by Rwanda and Congolese forces in the town of Saké, the army’s last important position before Goma, the provincial capital of more than 2 million inhabitants. On Tuesday, the M23 captured Minova, a key town along one of Goma’s main supply routes.
The fall of Goma would constitute a major step for the M23. The group seized the town and held it for two weeks in 2012, but withdrew after Rwanda came under intense international pressure to stop supporting the militia. The United States and United Nations say Rwanda finances and directs the M23, accusations that Rwanda has denied.
In late 2013, the Congolese army and United Nations forces quickly defeated the rebel group, which then remained dormant for nearly a decade.
Since then, the M23 has returned in force, starting at the end of 2021, inflicting a series of defeats on the Congolese army. At the same time, peace talks led by Congo’s southwestern neighbor Angola have stalled and the fate of U.N. peacekeepers stationed in eastern Congo was up in the air. ‘to recently uncertain, their mandate being renewed in December for an additional year.
Goma has long been a refuge for more than a million civilians fleeing violence from M23 militiamen, Congolese forces and other armed groups in the region.
Rebels launched a major offensive in eastern Congo this year, and now the region is more and more cut off. Rebels control land immediately north and west of Goma. To the east is the border with Rwanda. Its south is bounded by Lake Kivu.
Rebels have also advanced into other parts of North and South Kivu provinces, which include two other major cities, Butembo and Bukavu. The M23 has made the capture of Kavumu airport another primary objective, according to UN intelligence. Troops allied to the government used the airport to support the Congolese armed forces.
Wounded civilians fleeing Saké on foot and motorbike arrived Thursday morning at a hospital in Goma run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Abdourahmane Sidibé, the group’s lead surgeon, said he and his colleagues have treated twice as many civilians in recent weeks as on average last year.
“There was too much bombing,” said Hawa Amisi, 52, who fled with only a thin mattress, a bottle of water and four of her children. Ms. Amisi, who was separated from her husband during the fighting, said she saw dead bodies lying in the street as they fled.
Bruno Lemarquis, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Congo, said 2025 would be “a difficult year” because humanitarian needs are likely to increase and funds are expected to decline.
The United States – traditionally Congo’s largest humanitarian donor – is expected to significantly reduce its aid under the new Trump administration, humanitarian officials and experts say. “Even before the arrival of the new American administration, we were told that American humanitarian aid would be reduced by a third,” said Mr. Lemarquis.
The conflict in eastern Congo – a region the size of Michigan – was once referred to as the African World War. This situation has lasted since the 1990s and involves dozens of armed groups, among which the M23 currently dominates.
Rwanda complaints M23 fights for the rights of Congo’s Tutsis — the ethnic group targeted by extremists from Rwanda’s Hutu majority during the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed.
But many Congolese see the rebel advance as an invasion of their country by a foreign power.
Now equipped with high-tech weapons, according to a recent UN reportthe M23 rebels are trying to establish a lasting presence in the region. They train the police, create courts, collect taxes and issue birth certificates, experts say, and have assassinated several traditional leaders, replacing them with officials sympathetic to their cause.
Most observers say the M23 wants rare and valuable land and minerals like coltan, a metal ore used to produce tantalum, found in smartphones and laptops. Last April, the M23 mines seized in Rubaya — one of the world’s largest sources of coltan.
As rebels have conquered more territory in recent years, violence has reached new heights.
Thousands of children were killed, mutilated and forced to become child soldiers. Serious injuries caused by heavy artillery increased. Most of the victims are children.
Sexual violence has reached extreme levels. In 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières treated more than 25,000 survivors of sexual violence – the highest number ever recorded in the country. The figures for the first half of 2024 were even higher.
More than 240,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since the start of the year, according to the United Nations report. refugee agencyas M23 rebels launched new offensives in the eastern regions of North Kivu province, where Goma is located, and South Kivu. They join the 4.6 million people already displaced in eastern Congo.
Saikou Jammeh contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal.
