Rebels backed by Rwandan troops march into Congo’s largest city Goma

Rwandan-backed rebels marched into eastern Congo's largest city Goma on Monday, and the U.N. said they were supported by at least some regular Rwandan troops, in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.

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Rwandan-backed rebels marched into eastern Congo’s largest city Goma on Monday, and the U.N. said they were supported by at least some regular Rwandan troops, in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.

A rebel alliance spearheaded by the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 militia said it had seized the lakeside city of more than two million people, a hub for displaced people and aid groups lying on the border with Rwanda and last occupied by M23 in 2012.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, told Reuters his forces controlled the city. His claim could not be independently verified amid conflicting accounts of the situation as the sound of explosions, heavy artillery and gunfire resounded all day.

On Monday evening, Rural Development Minister Muhindo Nzangi said the Congolese army controlled 80% of Goma, with Rwandan troops either on the city’s outskirts or back across the border.

The speaker of Congo’s national assembly, Vital Kamerhe, said a military assessment found that government troops and pro-government militias still held some positions. He said President Felix Tshisekedi would address the nation on the matter, without giving a date.

But another Congolese official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, and M23 sources, said the rebels held 90% of Goma.

“There are pockets of resistance,” a U.N. source said. “But even our troops are coming under heavy fire, both at the airport and at our (peacekeeping) base.”

The M23 said earlier on Monday that it had taken control of the offices of Congo’s national broadcaster in Goma, and two employees there confirmed the information. At a briefing in New York, the senior U.N. official in Congo, Bruno Lemarquis, told reporters fighting was ongoing.

“There’s no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters at the same livestreamed event. “It’s difficult to tell exactly what the numbers are.” One Goma resident told Reuters he had seen men in Rwandan army uniforms on Monday.

“At around 6 p.m., I went out to (see) what the situation was. I saw soldiers dressed in brand new Rwandan uniforms,” the resident of central Goma said.

Greg Ramm, country director for the Save the Children humanitarian organisation in Congo, told an online briefing: “On any given moment, we have reports that neighbourhoods are calm. A few minutes later, we hear reports of new shelling.”

Congo accused Rwanda of sending troops into its territory, while Rwanda said fighting near the border threatened its own security. Rwanda’s army said Congolese shelling had killed five people and injured 26 in the town of Rubavu near the border.

Congolese soldiers on Mount Goma, a hill within the city, exchanged artillery fire with Rwandan troops on the other side of the border in the town of Gisenyi, according to two U.N. sources, while a Reuters reporter in Gisenyi saw columns of people fleeing the town.

In the first indication of civilian casualties in the fighting, Save the Children officials said an explosive device had fallen on a camp for displaced people in Goma on Sunday. Artillery fire also struck a maternity hospital, killing and injuring civilians, including newborns and pregnant women, Lemarquis said.

The U.N. Security Council will meet again on Tuesday to discuss the crisis after a first meeting on Sunday, diplomats said. Congo’s foreign ministry had written to the Security Council on Monday asking for a second meeting and more action from the U.N., including targeted sanctions against Rwanda and an order to withdraw troops.

(Reuters)