Ásia, Deutsche Welle, Inglês – M23 claim they have captured Goma – DW – 01/27/2025

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Paris expressed its solidarity with Kinshasa and denounced the M23 rebel group’s offensive in eastern Congo.

“France strongly condemns the offensive led by the M23, backed by the Rwandan armed forces, which has led to the death of six peacekeepers and the displacement of several thousands people. Fighting must stop and dialogue resume,” Barrot said as he arrived at the Council of European Foreign Ministers in Brussels.

The statement comes several hours after M23 rebels claimed to have taken the eastern Congolese city of Goma.

The UN Security Council on Sunday demanded that M23 rebels halt their ongoing offensive and advance towards Goma and that “external forces” in the region immediately withdraw.

The Council “condemned the ongoing flagrant disregard for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC,” it said in a statement.

“The members of the Security Council are also deeply alarmed by continued occurrences of GPS jamming and spoofing activities in support of M23 operations in North Kivu,” the statement added.

M23 rebels claim they have taken control of the key eastern DRC city of Goma early Monday.

The rebels had announced the city’s capture in a statement minutes before a 48-hour deadline imposed by the group for the Congolese army to disarm and surrender expired.

M23 urged residents of Goma to remain calm and for Congolese forces to gather at the central stadium.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Kenya announced on Sunday that DRC and Rwanda had agreed to attend a summit in the next two days to discuss the crisis in eastern DRC.

Kenyan President William Ruto thanked DRC President Etienne Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame for agreeing to attend the extraordinary summit of the East African Community regional bloc “within the next 48 hours.”

The talks would “deliberate on this crisis and chart a way forward”, said Ruto. 

M23 rebels, believed to be backed by Rwanda, have entered the outskirts of the besieged eastern city of Goma.

AFP journalists reported hearing gunshots and once night fell, large explosions could be heard across the capital of the mineral-rich North Kivu province.

The Reuters news agency reported that the M23 fighters had ordered government forces to disarm and surrender and said they were preparing to seize control of the city.

M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma told Reuters the rebels were planning to seize Goma at 3:00 am (0100 GMT).

“We gave the (Congolese forces) a 48-hour ultimatum to lay down their arms. The ultimatum has already passed, so we say that they can deposit their military equipment at (U.N. mission) MONUSCO,” he said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) top diplomat on Sunday accused neighbor Rwanda of issuing a “declaration of war”  by sending more troops over the border.

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Sunday brought forward by a day in response to the crisis Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said: “This is a frontal assault, a declaration of war that no longer hides behind diplomatic artifice.”

Kayikwamba urged the Security Council to “impose targeted sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans” on Rwandan officials in response to the developing situation in the eastern DRC.

The AFP news agency reported that between 500 and 1,000 Rwandan soldiers arrived on Sunday to reinforce the M23 near Goma and cited UN sources with the information.

The international airport in the eastern part of Goma was evacuated on Sunday and commercial flights were temporarily grounded as fighting between government forces and M23 rebels raged on the outskirts of the city.

The UN cautioned staff not to travel to the airport and remain in place according to internal communication reportedly seen by the AP news agency.

“Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace
over Goma closed,” UN special representative for DRC Bintu Keita said, adding: “In other words, we are trapped.”

Keita said UN was temporarily relocating nonessential personnel from Goma. 

The reports of the rebels’ advance seems to contradict a Saturday statement from the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) that said an M23 militants had been halted and even pushed back. The sound of heavy gunfire continued to be heard across Goma as scores of displaced people, including many children, fled.

International peacekeepers are backing the Congolese armed forces in the fighting on DRC territory.

At least three UN peacekeepers were killed in the fighting — two South Africans and one Uruguayan — while seven other South African soldiers and three from Malawi, serving in a separate Southern African mission were also killed.

Aid agencies are concerned about the conflict’s impact on civilians, and have warned that the fighting will deepen what is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

M23 rebels, believed to be backed by Rwanda, continued closing in on the eastern DRC city of Goma on Sunday.

Thousands of civilians have been forced to flee amid an escalation in fighting as government forces battled to stop the rebels from taking control of the mineral-rich city.

The UN special representative for Congo, Bintu Keita told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that “M23 and Rwandan forces penetrated Munigi quarter in the outskirts Goma city, causing mass panic and flight amongst the population.”

The UN says several hundred thousand have already been forced to flee a number areas where fighting has taken place since the latest M23 offensive began on January 23.

“Several sites on the outskirts of Goma, sheltering more than 300,000 displaced people, were completely emptied in the space of a few hours,”  the UN humanitarian coordinator said in a statement.
 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid fierce fighting as M23 rebels closed in on the outskirts of the Congolese city of Goma.

Heavy fighting has already killed 13 soldiers from South Africa, Malawi and Uruguay. Some of the soldiers who lost their lives were part of a UN mission, while others members of a regional peacekeeping force

“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the escalating violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and reiterates his strongest condemnation of the M23 armed group’s ongoing offensive and advances towards Goma in North Kivu with the support of the Rwanda Defence Forces,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

“He calls on the M23 to immediately cease all hostile actions and withdraw from occupied areas. He further calls on the Rwanda Defence Forces to cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory,” Dujarric said.

The M23 rebels are mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago. Experts from Congo, the United States and the UN have accused Rwanda of backing the M23 armed group. 

kb (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)