M23 and Rwandan troops attack, 2,900 dead in Goma

Thursday, February 06, 2025
Bukavu, DR Congo

The M23 and Rwandan troops launched a new offensive on Wednesday in the eastern DRC, where they have already taken control of the town of Goma in fighting that has left at least 2,900 dead, according to a new UN toll.

Some “2,000 bodies have been recovered from the streets of Goma in recent days, and 900 bodies are in the morgue”, said the deputy head of the UN mission in the DRC, Vivian van de Perre, adding that the death toll could rise further. A previous estimate put the death toll at 900.

After seizing the capital of North Kivu province last week, the M23 unilaterally declared a humanitarian ceasefire, which was supposed to come into effect on Tuesday. It added that it had “no intention of taking control of Bukavu or any other locality”.

But at dawn on Wednesday, fighters from the armed group and Rwandan soldiers initiated intense fighting against Congolese armed forces in the neighboring province of South Kivu. According to security and humanitarian sources, they quickly seized the mining town of Nyabibwe, some 100 km from Bukavu and 70 km from the provincial airport.

“This proves that the unilateral ceasefire that had been declared was, as usual, a sham,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told AFP.

In over three years of conflict, the Congolese army (FARDC), reputed to be poorly trained and plagued by corruption, has steadily regressed. Half a dozen cease-fires and truces have been agreed but never respected.

Clashes had already broken out last week in South Kivu, but a lull had set in over the last few days. According to local and military sources, this respite was used by both sides to reinforce their forces and equipment.

On Wednesday in Bukavu, a large city of one million inhabitants, a fervent crowd, candles in hand, gathered for a prayer for peace.

The international community and mediating countries such as Angola and Kenya are trying to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis, fearing a regional conflagration.

– no action” –

According to diplomatic sources, the advance of the M23 and Rwandan troops could weaken the government of Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, in power since 2019 and re-elected for a second term in December 2023.

Kinshasa urged the international community to sanction Kigali.

“We see a lot of declarations, but we don’t see any action”, lamented Congolese Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner on Wednesday, following a meeting in Brussels with her Belgian counterpart Maxime Prévot.

Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame are due to attend a joint extraordinary summit of the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

President Kagame said on Wednesday he had agreed with European Council President Antonio Costa on the need for “de-escalation” in eastern DRC.

“We discussed the situation in the DRC and agreed on the need for effective de-escalation and a resolution of the conflict that prioritizes political dialogue and ensures lasting peace,” he said.

The UN Human Rights Council is also due to hold an emergency meeting on Friday, at Kinshasa’s request, to discuss the crisis. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which investigates war crimes and crimes against humanity, said on Wednesday that it was “closely monitoring” the situation in the DRC.

In parallel with the laborious diplomatic efforts, several neighboring countries have already indicated that they are strengthening their defenses.

The Ugandan army announced last week that it would adopt “an advanced defensive posture” to “prevent the many other armed groups” operating in eastern DRC from “exploiting the situation”.

Burundi, for its part, accused Rwanda of “preparing something” and said it had no intention of “letting itself be taken advantage of”.

In a region ravaged by decades of conflict, Kinshasa accuses Kigali of plundering the region’s many natural resources.

Rwanda denies this and claims that it wants to eradicate armed groups, notably those created by former Hutu leaders of the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, which it considers a threat to its security.

Humaniterre with AFP