The rebels supported by Rwanda claimed to have captured the largest city in eastern Congo on Monday, when the United Nations described a “mass panic” among its two million people and the Congo government has declared that the rebels’ advance was a “declaration of war”.
The M23 rebels announced the capture of the city in a press release a few minutes before the expiration of a deadline of 48 hours imposed by the group so that the Congolese army abandoned their weapons.
In a press release, the rebels urged Goma residents to remain calm and for the members of the Congolese army to meet at the central stadium.
The offensive of the M23 rebels at the heart of the region rich in minerals threatens to considerably consider one of the longest wars in Africa and to move civilians more. According to a United Nations report, more than a third of the population of the northern Kivu province where Goma is located is currently moved, and the capture of Goma will probably exacerbate the situation.
Late Sunday evening, the United Nations peacekeepers began to treat the members of the military who had started to go to the outskirts of the city.
The Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya made a statement in a video published on X calling for the protection of civilians and saying that the country is “in a war situation where the news changes”.
Late Sunday, the United Nations Special Representative for the Congo told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council that with the closed airport and the roads are blocked in the humanitarian and security center of the vast Region, “we are trapped”.
The Congo on Saturday evening, broke its relations with Rwanda, which denied having supported the M23 despite the evidence collected by UN experts and others. The wave of violence killed at least 13 peacekeepers in last week. And the Congolese were again on the run.
The M23 has achieved important territorial gains along the Congo border with Rwanda in recent weeks, after having failed months of regional peace attempts. Sunday evening, the rebels called on the Congo army to abandon their arms and to appear in a local stadium at 3 am, or they would take the city.
The Uruguayan army, which is in Goma, serving with the United Nations peacekeeping mission, said in a statement on X on Sunday evening that some Congolese soldiers had made their weapons.
“More than a hundred FARDC soldiers are sheltered in the installations of the” Siempre present “base while waiting for the process (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration)”, said the press release.
In the photos shared with the declaration, armed men have registered with peace plans in a mixture of military uniforms and civilian clothes.
The United Nations Special Representative, Bintou Keita, told the Security Council that despite United Nations support for United Nations headphones for the Congolese armed forces, M23 and Rwandan forces entered the Munigi district on the outskirts of Goma, “provoking mass panic”. Munigi is nine kilometers from the city.
Keita said M23 fighters were advancing and used residents “as human shields” while others fled for their lives.
“M23 said airspace on closed Goma,” she added. “In other words, we are trapped.” She said that the UN temporarily moved the non -essential staff of the city.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Congo, Therese Kayikwamba, Wagner told the Security Council that Rwanda made “a frontal assault, a declaration of war which no longer hides behind diplomatic maneuvers”.
The Rwanda Ambassador to the UN, Ernest Rwamucyo, has not confirmed or refused the claims of the Congo. He blamed the government of the Congo, saying that the crisis could have been avoided if it had “demonstrated a real commitment to peace”.
The United States and France have called for a ceasefire and called on Rwanda to withdraw its support for M23, with the acting American ambassador Dorothy Shea warning that the United States “would examine all the tools to His disposition “to hold responsible for managers to maintain the armed conflict.
In the last 48 hours, two United Nations South African Peace soldiers and one of Uruguay have been killed and 11 others were injured and hospitalized, said the spokesman for the secretary general of the Onu António Guterres before the meeting of the Security Council.
Members of the Congolese community gathered in Winnipeg on Saturday to denounce the climbing of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while calling for Canadian intervention to bring peace to their country of origin.
The UN chief reiterated his “strongest conviction” of the M23 offensive “with the support of the defense forces of Rwanda” and called on the rebel group to immediately stop all hostile measures and to withdraw, declared the spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
The Congo, the United States and UN experts accuse Rwanda of supporting M23, which is mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis that separated from the Congolese army over ten years ago. It is one of the hundreds of armed groups who have been disputed for a foot in the region rich in minerals, where a long -standing conflict has created one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
The government of Rwanda denies the rebels, but last year acknowledged 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 4,000 Rwandan forces are in Congo.
