An insurgency by M23 rebels in eastern Congo has escalated and reached the city of Goma, worsening a humanitarian crisis in a region that suffered two devastating wars between 1996 and 2003.
A rebel alliance led by the ethnic Tutsi-led militia said it had seized the lakeside town of over two million people, a major hub for displaced people and aid groups that straddles the border with Rwanda.
In a video from Goma airport posted on social media in recent hours and verified by Reuters, which showed unidentified gunmen running around the airport grounds, there was the deep pounding of heavy artillery fire and rapid rat-a-tat shots heard.
About the size of Western Europe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it is formally known, is home to 100 million people, and the United Nations has worried that the M23’s offensive risks lead to a broader regional war.
Here’s what to know:
Who are the rebels?
The M23 takes its name from a March 23, 2009 letter signed by the Congolese government and a previous TutSi-led rebel group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People. The M23 consists of both fighters from this original group as well as defectors from the Congolese military and police.
The group did not wait long to accuse the Congo government of failing to live up to the peace agreement by fully integrating Congolese Tutsis into its army and administration. By 2012 it had taken control of Goma and withdrew after further negotiations with the government.
It launched its current rebellion in 2022 and fought last year, resulting in territorial gains for M23. The rebels asserted control of Masisi, about 80 kilometers north of Goma, in early January.
The rebel gains have halted last month’s planned withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeeping force Monusco, which first put boots on the country’s soil in 2000.
In 2023, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi called for the peacekeepers’ departure to be fast-tracked. Their presence had become increasingly unpopular and even sparked deadly protests over perceptions by some in the east that they had failed to adequately protect civilians from militia violence.
The UN mission, which deploys around 11,000 peacekeepers and 1,750 civilians in Congo, has been extended until December this year.
The M23 has alliances with some political groups, including one led by Coreile Nangaa, a former Congo electoral commission official, including a criticized 2018 election victory for Tshisekedi, which was nonetheless announced by the US State Department in Donald Trump’s first presidential administration. Nangaa himself was sanctioned by the US for embezzling election funds from Washington.
While it is difficult to assess the level of support for Nangaa’s Fleuve Congo alliance (AFC), in which the M23 rebels are seen as a military wing, UN experts said in December that a growing number of armed factions were on the side.
“Our target is neither Goma nor Bukavu, but Kinshasa (the capital), the source of all problems,” he told Reuters in an interview. “In Congo we have a weak state or a non-state. That’s where all the armed groups emerged, it’s because there is no state. We want to recreate the state.”
Rwanda’s role
Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, has been the de facto leader of Rwanda since that country’s 1994 genocide, in which nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. While his regime has been accused of human rights abuses at home and the opposition has often tolerated the autocrat in elections that are not free or fair.
Rwanda under Kagama not only has a long history of military interventions in Congo. Rwanda and Uganda invaded in 1996 and 1998, claiming they were defending themselves against local militia groups.
Congo’s government, UN officials and Western authorities, including the United States, have accused Congo’s neighbor Rwanda of fueling the conflict by deploying thousands of its own troops and heavy weapons on Congolese soil in support of M23.
A report by a UN group of experts in 2022 provided “solid evidence” that Rwandan troops had fought alongside the M23 rebels.
How the rebels make money
Several members of the U.N. Security Council, at an emergency meeting on the spiraling situation on Sunday, echoed the sentiment of Russia on the panel, Vassily Nebenzia.
“We are convinced that the struggle for access to strategically important Congolese minerals is one of the reasons for the continuation of the crisis we are now experiencing,” Nebenzia said.
The current one26:51The human cost of cobalt, the element that powers our devices
The push to electrify our vehicles is a scramble for cobalt, which is almost exclusively mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We speak to Siddharth Kara, author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Makes Our Lives.
Congo’s numerous mineral supplies have long been coveted by Chinese and Western companies as well as armed groups. The Central African nation contains several minerals in the earth that are part of the supply chains for electric vehicles, smartphones and computers.
The M23 has been in control of the Rubaya coltan mining region for over a year. This has allowed them to generate an estimated $800,000 per month through a production tax, according to the United Nations.
The group has expanded into new areas in recent weeks where analysts say it is generating more mining revenue. These include Numbi, an eastern mining area rich in gold, tourmaline and tin, tantalum and tungsten – so-called 3T minerals used in computers and cell phones.
Technology manufacturers are being investigated to ensure metals used in their products do not come from conflict zones such as eastern Congo. Apple has in the past denied allegations that it has sourced cobalt and other conflict minerals, and in December it reported that Congo and Rwanda suppliers would no longer purchase tantalum, tungsten and gold.
Men, women and children have often worked in toxic conditions in Congo’s mines, and U.N. experts say rebels doubled diggers’ wages to persuade them to continue working in Rubaya.
M23’s control of transportation routes from Rubaya to Rwanda resulted in Rubaya Minerals interfering with Rwandan production and contaminating a coltan supply chain.
