Panic spread in Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels inching closer to the city in eastern Congo as they battled the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off on the outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought into the main hospital from nearby towns and villages.
The rebel group has been making major advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, home to around two million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts. .
M23 is one of around 100 armed groups that have been fighting for a foothold in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the the world's greatest humanitarian crisis.
More than seven million people were displaced by the fighting. Earlier this month, M23 captured the towns of Minova, Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.
“The people of Goma have suffered a lot, like other Congolese,” said M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka on X. “The M23 is on the way to liberate them, and they must prepare to welcome their liberation this.”
M23 captured Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.
As news of the fighting spread, schools in Goma sent students home on Thursday morning.
“We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That is why we are being asked to go home,” said Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student. “We are always waiting for the bombs.”
Rwanda accused of supporting rebels
Congolese experts, the United States and the UN accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, which is mostly made up of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army more than ten years ago.
The Rwandan government denies the allegations but admitted last year that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to protect its security, marking a build-up of Congolese forces near the end UN experts estimate that there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
On Wednesday, Congolese Minister Patrick Muyaya told French broadcaster France 24 that war against Rwanda is an “option to consider.”
Congolese authorities said Thursday that the military repelled an attack by the “Rwandan army” on Sake, a town just 23 kilometers from Goma. The Associated Press could not confirm whether the Rwandan army participated in the attack.
The situation in Sake is still unclear, with some residents claiming that the rebels have entered the town and captured them.
“The people are in shock. The M23 now controls large parts of the town,” said Leopold Mwisha, president of the Sake district civil society.
The US Embassy in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, warned on Thursday of “an increase in the severity of the armed conflict near Sake” and advised US nationals in the North Kivu region, which including Goma, to be warned in case they have to do so. leave their homes at short notice.
The United Kingdom also issued a travel advisory which said the M23 is now in control of Sake and urged British nationals to leave Goma while roads remain open.
Partially stretched hospital
Many Sake residents have joined more than 178,000 people who have fled the M23 in the past two weeks.
The CBCA Ndosho Hospital in Goma was stretched to its lowest level, with hundreds of people newly injured on Thursday.
Thousands fled the fighting by boat on Wednesday, making their way north across Lake Kivu and pouring out of crowded wooden boats in Goma, some with bags of their belongings tied around the front.
Neema Matondo said she fled Sake during the night, when the first explosion started. She said that she saw people around her being torn and killed.
“We escaped, but unfortunately” others did not, Matondo said.
Mariam Nasibu, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost a leg, swept away in the relentless shelling.
“As I kept fleeing, another bomb fell in front of me, hitting my child,” she said, crying.
