A drone strike killed three people, including an aid worker, in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, marking a sharp escalation in the country’s ongoing conflict in the east.
No group has claimed responsibility for the 4 a.m. strike on a lakeside house in Goma, a city occupied by M23, a militia backed by neighboring Rwanda. President Trump claimed in December that he had ended the war in Eastern Congo, which reached new levels of violence roughly a year ago when M23 claimed Goma, as well as other Congolese territory.
Leaders of both Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement brokered by Washington last year. But clashes have continued between Congolese forces and M23.
Several senior figures in M23 live in the neighborhood where the drone hit. The wife of Congo’s former President, Joseph Kabila, has a residence very close to the house that was struck. Mr. Kabila was in Goma at the time of the attack, but not in his wife’s home, according to two of his advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Last year, Mr. Kabila was convicted of treason in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, and sentenced to death in absentia for collaborating with M23.
Speaking to journalists at the bombing site on the banks of Lake Kivu, an M23 spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, accused the Congolese government of being behind the attack and of violating the cease-fire agreement.
The Congolese communications ministry said in a statement that it was investigating the strike, adding that it was committed to “respecting international humanitarian law.”
Residents of neighboring houses said that one bomb fell in Lake Kivu, and then a few minutes later, another hit the house where Karine Buisset, a Frenchwoman working for the United Nations children’s agency, or UNICEF, was staying. Ms. Buisset and two other civilians were killed, a United Nations representative in Congo said.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the use of weapons, including armed drones that endanger civilian populations and United Nations personnel,” the representative, Bruno Lemarquis, said in a statement. “This escalation of violence is deeply concerning.”
One resident told The New York Times that he had been bathing in the lake when he heard the drone fly over, and that waves rushed in the water after the first bomb fell. The blast of the second bomb was heard all over the neighborhood, he said.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, offered condolences to Ms. Buisset’s family, calling for “respect for humanitarian law and for the personnel who are on the ground and committed to saving lives.”
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, or ACLED, a conflict monitoring nonprofit, said their analysis shows that recent drone strikes in Goma are likely being launched by the Congolese military.
“The vast majority of drone strikes in eastern DRC are conducted by the Congolese military,” said Ladd Serwat, ACLED’s senior Africa analyst. That includes more than 60 cases of the Congolese military using air or drone strikes so far in 2026, he added.
Last month, Willy Ngoma, a spokesman for M23’s political arm, was killed in a drone attack near Rubaya, a mining area rich in coltan, an ore used in mobile phones.
The strikes are the latest sign that the cease-fire has failed to bring peace. Soon after the presidential signing ceremony last December in Washington, M23 seized the Congolese city of Uvira, later withdrawing under pressure from the United States.
This month, the United States imposed sanctions on Rwanda’s military, which it said was “actively supporting, training, and fighting alongside” M23.
Reporting was contributed by Saikou Jammeh in Dakar, Senegal and Justin Makangara in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.
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