Clashes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s besieged city of Goma have killed at least 17 people and wounded nearly 370, hospital sources said on Monday, as the Congolese military fought to hold off M23 forces backed by the Rwandan army.
Artillery fire and gunshots echoed across the major hub in the DRC’s mineral-rich east, as Kigali said five civilians were killed across the Rwandan border.
There were conflicting accounts over how much of Goma remained under Congolese control after the M23 armed group and Rwandan soldiers entered the city center on Sunday night.
“We are in our beds because we are afraid,” Goma resident told AFP by telephone.
“We can hear the shooting outside our homes, we cannot leave.”
The M23 resurfaced in late 2021 after years of dormancy and began seizing large swathes of North Kivu province.
But fighting with the Congolese military has intensified since early this year, in the latest chapter of the internal and cross-border violence which has dogged the eastern DRC for three decades.
Besides the more than a million who call Goma home, the provincial capital is host to nearly as many displaced by fighting.
Hospitals in the city were on Monday treating 367 people wounded in the clashes, while tolls obtained by AFP listed at least 17 people dead.
“Our surgical teams are now working around the clock to cope with the massive influx of wounded,” Myriam Favier, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in North Kivu province, told AFP.
Most of those affected were civilians, Favier said.
The fighting has intensified a humanitarian crisis, displacing half a million people just this month, according to UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi. The UN has also warned the conflict could spark a regional war.
The DRC government said it “continues to work to avoid carnage and the loss of human life” in Goma, spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on X.
The M23 claimed Sunday night was a “glorious day marking the liberation for the city of Goma,” issuing an ultimatum to Congolese soldiers to hand over their weapons.
Crisis Summit
M23 fighters and Rwandan soldiers entered Goma after weeks of advancing on the city, according to the UN and security sources.
Kenyan President William Ruto said Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame would attend a crisis summit on Wednesday.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the escalating crisis.
In a call with Tshisekedi, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated Washington’s “respect for the sovereignty of the DRC” and agreed on the need to “restart talks between the DRC and Rwanda as soon as possible,” his office said Monday.
The DRC and Rwanda have had fraught relations for decades.
Kinshasa has accused Kigali of wanting to get hold of the region’s mineral wealth, including gold – an accusation that Rwanda denies.
Goma Jailbreak
As Goma descended into chaos, a mass jailbreak from a torched prison resulted in deaths on Monday, a security source told AFP.
In parts of the city, M23 fighters were welcomed by celebrating locals, AFP journalists said.
Some Congolese units had begun to surrender by handing over their weapons to peacekeepers in Goma, according to Uruguay’s military which provides soldiers to the UN force in the DRC, known as MONUSCO.
Exchanges of fire took place between Congolese and Rwandan troops on either side of a border crossing near Goma, a diplomatic source told AFP.
Five civilians were killed and 25 seriously wounded on the outskirts of Rwandan border town Gisenyi, Rwanda’s military told AFP on Monday.
Rwandan military spokesman Ronald Rwivanga told AFP that some 120 Congolese fighters had been “disarmed” near Gisenyi.
Rwivanga said the military had “intercepted and shot down some of the bombs, but unfortunately we couldn’t intercept all of them.”
The border between Rwanda and the DRC near Goma was also closed on Monday, a European consulate source told AFP, although Rwandan state media said buses were ready to evacuate UN staff and their families from Goma.
‘Declaration of War’
Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said the arrival of Rwandan soldiers to reinforce the M23 in Goma on Sunday was “a declaration of war.”
Addressing an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Sunday, she urged the United Nations to impose sanctions on Rwanda.
The Security Council called for the withdrawal of aggressive “external forces” but stopped short of explicitly naming them.
Rwanda has rejected calls to withdraw.
The fighting near the border poses “a serious threat” and “necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture,” Rwanda’s foreign ministry said.
Thirteen foreign peacekeepers have been killed in the escalating clashes.
Both the DRC and Rwanda have withdrawn their diplomats from each other’s capitals.
Kayikwamba called on the UN Security Council to impose a “total embargo on the export of all minerals labelled as Rwandan, in particular gold.”
Rwanda has rejected the DRC’s accusations.
A UN experts’ report said Rwanda was using the M23 to secure access to the DRC’s mineral wealth, exporting it abroad for its own gain.
