Panic spread to Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels regularly approaching the city in eastern Congo while they fight the Congolese army. Bombs have been heard that are triggered in the distant periphery and hundreds of injured civilians were brought to the main hospital of neighboring towns and villages.
The rebel group has made significant progress in recent weeks, approaching Goma, which is home to around two million people and a regional center for security and humanitarian efforts.
The M23 is one of some 100 armed groups that have argued from a foot in the eastern Congo rich in minerals, along the border with Rwanda, in a conflict of several decades which has created one of the largest humanitarian crises of the world.
More than seven million people have been moved by fighting. Earlier this month, M23 captured the cities of Minova, Katal and Masisi, west of Goma.
“The inhabitants of Goma have suffered greatly, like other Congolese,” said a spokesperson for M23, Lawrence Kanyuka, on X. “M23 is about to release them, and they must prepare to welcome this release . “
M23 seized Goma in 2012 and checked it for more than a week.
While the news of the fighting spread, Goma’s schools returned the students home Thursday morning.
“We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That is why we are told to go home,” said Hassan Kambale, a 19 -year -old high school student. “We are constantly waiting for the bombs.”
Rwanda accused of having supported the rebels
The Congo, the United States and UN experts accuse Rwanda of supporting M23, which is mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis that separated from the Congolese army more than a decade.
The government of Rwanda denies the complaint, but last year admitted that it had troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to protect its security, stressing an accumulation of Congolese forces near the border. UN experts estimate that there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
On Wednesday, the Minister of the Congo of Communication, Patrick Muyaya, told the French broadcaster France 24 that war with Rwanda was an “option to consider”.
The Congolese authorities said Thursday that the soldiers had pushed an attack on the “Rwandan army” in Sake, a city just 23 kilometers from Goma. The Associated Press could not verify whether the Rwanda army participated in the offensive.
The situation in sake remains clear, some residents saying 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, president of civil society in the region.
The United States Embassy in the capital of Congo, Kinshasa, in an opinion, warned Thursday of an “increase in the severity of armed conflicts near the Sake” and advised American nationals of the northern province of the Kivu, who includes Goma, to be alert in case they need to leave their homes within a short time.
The United Kingdom also published a travel notice which said that the M23 now controls the sake and urged British nationals to leave Goma while the roads remain open.
The stretched hospital to limit
Many residents of Saké have joined the more than 178,000 people who have fled M23 in the past two weeks.
Goma’s CBCA NDOSHO Hospital was extended to the limit, with hundreds of new injured on Thursday.
Thousands of people escaped boat fighting on Wednesday, heading north through Lake Kivu and spreading from wooden boats wrapped in Goma, some with packets of their goods attached around their front.
Neema Matondo said she had fled the sake overnight, when the first explosions started to start. She said when she saw people around her torn apart and killed.
“We escaped, but unfortunately” did not do it, “said Matondo.
Mariam Nasibu, who fled with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost one leg, exploded in the implacable bombing.
“While I continued to flee, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said, shouting.
