Panic spread across Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily closing in on the city in eastern Congo as they battle the Congolese army. Bombs were going off in the distant outskirts of the city and hundreds of wounded civilians were being brought to the main hospital from nearby towns and villages.
The rebel group has made significant progress in recent weeks, joining Goma, which is home to around two million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups struggling to gain a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo bordering Rwanda in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
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 a lot,” said an M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka on X.
M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.
As news of the fight spread, schools in Goma sent students home on Thursday morning.
“We are being told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That’s why we are being told to go home,” said Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student. “We’re always waiting for the bombs.”
Rwanda accused of supporting rebels
Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, made up mostly of ethnic Tutsis who defected from the Congolese army over a decade ago.
Rwanda’s government denies the claim but admitted last year that it had troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to protect its security and pointed to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border. UN experts estimate that there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
On Wednesday, Patrick Muyaya, Congo’s communications minister, 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 by the “Rwandan army” on Sake, a town just 23 kilometers from Goma. The Associated Press was unable to verify whether Rwanda’s army took part in the offensive.
The intense situation remains unclear, and some residents claim that the rebels have entered and seized the city.
“The population is in panic. The M23 now controls large parts of the city,” said Leopold Mwisha, the president of the Sake region civil society.
The US Embassy in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, warned in a statement on Thursday of “an increase in the severity of the armed conflict near Sake” and advised US nationals in North Kivu province, which includes Goma include, in case they need to, in case they need to leave their homes at short notice.
The UK also issued a travel advisory saying M23 is now controlling seers and urging British nationals to leave Goma while the roads remain open.
Hospital stretched to the limit
Many Sake residents have joined the more than 178,000 people who have fled the M23 advance in the past two weeks.
The CBCA Ndosho Hospital in Goma was on Thursday with hundreds of newly wounded.
Thousands escaped the fighting by boat on Wednesday, making their way north across Lake Kivu and spilling out of packed wooden boats in Goma, some with bundles of their belongings strapped to their foreheads.
Neema Matondo said she fled the night the first explosions went off. She recounted seeing people around her torn to pieces and killed.
“We escaped, but unfortunately,” others did not say, Matondo said.
Mariam Nasibu, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost a leg that was blown off in the relentless gunfire.
“As I continued to flee, another bomb fell in front of me and hit my child,” she said, crying.
