An armed rebel group backed by Rwanda took full control of a key provincial capital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, residents said, after days of bloody fighting that left streets lined with bodies and displaced thousands of people.
The M23 rebel movement seized Goma after a lightning offensive that began late last week, taking control of the city’s airport, key government buildings and a public radio station, residents told The Washington Post. Goma is the capital of Congo’s mineral-rich North Kivu region, a longtime tinderbox for ethnic violence and home to one of Africa’s most protracted conflicts.
Heavy battles between M23 fighters and Congolese government forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Goma have left many bodies on the streets, with hospitals struggling to deal with the growing number of casualties.
In the capital Kinshasa, protesters criticising international inaction attacked the embassies of Rwanda, France, Belgium and the United States on Tuesday.
On Monday, the rebels marched into Goma and declared the key city under their control, signalling a big blow to the Congolese army and a serious escalation in the years-long conflict that has killed hundreds and displaced millions in the region.
DRC’s Rural Development Minister Muhindo Nzangi said the Congolese army controlled 80 percent of Goma, with Rwandan troops either on the city’s outskirts or back across the border.
At a news briefing on Tuesday, the UN and other aid agencies warned that hospitals are overwhelmed in Goma, treating hundreds of patients with gunshot, mortar and shrapnel wounds while many bodies lie in the streets.
“There are currently hundreds of people in hospital, most admitted with gunshot wounds,” said Adelheid Marschang, WHO’s emergency response coordinator for the DRC.
At least 17 people were killed in Goma on Monday, and the AFP news agency reported quoting hospital sources that doctors in the city were treating 367 people wounded in the clashes. Civil society members and NGOs working in Goma put the death toll at 25, with 375 people wounded.
Greg Ramm, country director for Save the Children in DRC, said on Tuesday that while “we have reports that neighbourhoods are calm, a few minutes later, we hear reports of new shelling”.
Heavy small arms fire and mortar fire continued in the streets, where many dead bodies could be seen, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, also said at a press briefing, citing reports from UN staff in the city.
