The M23 armed armed group announced this Thursday, January 30, wanting to “stay” in Goma, the big city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which it has conquered in recent days with the Rwandan forces, and “Continue the liberation march” to the capital Kinshasa.
The day before, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi refused to admit defeated while the M23 and his allies continue to take ground in his army in the East, ensuring that a “vigorous response” is underway and putting in Guard against the risk of uncontrolled regional escalation. Stuck between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border, Goma, the main city in the east of the DRC, fell in recent days in the hands of the M23 and the Rwandan forces, which already controlled large sections of the province of North Kivu, After an offensive of several weeks.
“We are in Goma to stay there,” Corneille Nangaa, head of the politico-military platform said on Thursday, which is a member of which is a press conference in the capital of North Kivu. And “we are going to continue the liberation march to Kinshasa”, the capital of the DRC, he added.
While the fighting has almost completely ceased, the city held its wounds, between roads punctured by impacts of mortar and windows smashed by looting, AFP journalists found. If the fighting has little destroyed by buildings, the humanitarian situation remains critical and internet, running water and electricity are always cut. “There is nothing more to eat, everything has been looted,” worries Bosco, a resident who refuses to give his name. “We need assistance urgently”.
“Everything was looted”
The clashes left more than 100 dead and nearly a thousand injured, city hospitals said on Tuesday. Violence has aggravated a chronic humanitarian crisis in the region where, according to the UN, more than 500,000 people have been moved since the beginning of January. The flash offensive on this city of more than a million inhabitants and almost as many displaced people has aroused many calls at the end of the fighting and the withdrawal of Rwandan troops, from the United States to the United States, from China To the European Union, from Angola to France.
Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, which has been silent since the start of the offensive on Goma, addressed the nation in a speech broadcast on national television. Recognizing an “unprecedented worsening of the security situation” in the East, he assured that “a vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors is underway”, by praising the Congolese armed forces despite their losses in series. Conviving “silence” and “the inaction” of the international community in the face of “the barbarism of the Kigali regime”, he warned against the risk of “an escalation with unpredictable consequences” in the region of the Great Lakes.
On Wednesday, the M23 opened a new front south by seizing, according to local sources, of two villages in the province of South Kivu, close to that of North Kivu.
High suspended peace force?
So far, diplomatic initiatives launched to try to settle the conflict that has lasted for more than three years have given nothing. The Development Community of Southern Africa (SADC), which has soldiers deployed in the region, announced the holding of an extraordinary summit on Friday in Harare, Zimbabwe. According to the South African media Daily Maverick, it could announce a withdrawal from the Samirdc, its strength deployed since the end of 2023. Samidrc notably includes 2,900 South African soldiers, as well as Malawite and Tanzanian soldiers. South Africa also provides soldiers to the other peacekeeping force deployed in support in Kinshasa, that of the UN (Monusco). The two forces paid a heavy price for the clashes of this last week: 17 of their soldiers, including 13 South Africans, were killed there.
Paul Kagame put pressure on Samidrc on Thursday by considering that it is “not a peacekeeping force” and has “no place in this situation”. He also warned South Africa that he was not afraid of a “confrontation” with it on this subject.
The eastern DRC has been torn apart for decades by the violence of multiple armed groups, exacerbated after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Kinshasa accuses Kigali of wanting to loot the many natural riches, including the tantalum and the tin used in batteries and electronic equipment, or gold. Rwanda denies, and says they want to eradicate certain armed groups there that threaten its permanent security there, including the Liberation Democratic Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), created by former Hutu officials of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.