Gunfire rang out across parts of Goma, the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), hours after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels said they had seized it despite the United Nations Security Council calling for an end to the offensive.
The armed group announced the city’s capture in a statement early on Monday, as the DRC government said their advance was a “declaration of war” by Rwanda and the UN said the capture has caused “mass panic” among Goma’s two million residents.
The M23 claim came minutes before a 48-hour deadline it had given to Congolese troops to surrender their weapons expired. Its fighters also urged Goma residents to remain calm and for members of the DRC military to assemble at the central stadium.
Two witnesses told the Reuters news agency rebels had entered the centre of Goma. One of them shared a brief video showing heavily armed men walking through the streets, the agency reported.
The advance by the M23 rebel alliance has forced thousands in DRC’s mineral-rich east from their homes and triggered fears that a decades-old simmering conflict risks reigniting a broader regional war.
M23 fighters have been locked in a conflict with the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers on Goma’s outskirts for several days.
The battle for the key city is the latest chapter of fighting in the eastern DRC, a volatile area that has struggled with regional rivalries, ethnic disputes and armed militia conflicts for more than three decades, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In a video posted on X, DRC government’s spokesman Patrick Muyaya called for the protection of civilians and said the country is “in a war situation”.
Furious over the M23 advance on Goma, the DRC cut ties with Rwanda on Saturday and called for UN sanctions on its neighbour.
With international pressure mounting for an end to the battle for Goma, Kenya announced on Sunday that DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame had agreed to attend a summit in the next two days.
Kenyan President William Ruto appealed to both leaders to “heed the call for peace from the people of our region and the international community”.
Ruto, chairman of the East African Community bloc, will hold an emergency meeting for heads of state on the situation, said Korir Sing’Oei, principal secretary at Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At an emergency meeting of the UNSC on Sunday in response to the crisis, Kinshasa’s top diplomat warned that more Rwandan troops were crossing the border “in an open and deliberate violation” of sovereignty.
“This is a frontal assault, a declaration of war that no longer hides behind diplomatic artifice,” said DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner.
Kigali dismissed statements that “did not provide any solutions”, and blamed Kinshasa for triggering the recent escalation.
“The fighting close to the Rwandan border continues to present a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and territorial integrity and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture,” Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
UN experts say Rwanda has deployed 3,000-4,000 soldiers and provided significant firepower, including missiles and snipers, to support the M23 in fighting in DRC.
In a statement late on Sunday, the UNSC called for the withdrawal of aggressive “external forces” in the region but stopped short of explicitly naming them.
The statement came after UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Rwanda to pull its armed forces out of DRC – a call rejected by Kigali.
About a dozen foreign peacekeepers have been killed in the escalating clashes.
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