Over 100 killed in DR Congo’s Goma — agency

According to Agencies France-Presse (AFP), dead bodies are still lying on the streets of Goma

More than a hundred of people have been killed and over a thousand wounded in the city of Goma in the east of the Democractic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the AFP news agency reported .”Many more dead bodies are still lying on the streets of Goma,” the agency reported.

M23 units, supported by Rwandan forces, entered Goma late on January 26. France’s Le Monde reported that although they control a large portion of the city, there are still some pockets of resistance, and the most important of them being near Goma International Airport.

Rebels, who entered the city of Goma, the administrative centre of the North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, plan to stay in the city and govern it, a rebel leader has told Reuters.

“We plan to govern Goma,” said Corneille Nangaa, the head of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo that includes the March 23 Movement (M23).

He also said rebel forces have taken control over strategically important Goma International Airport, a regional transport hub for the UN contingent also used by DR Congo’s air force planes. The DR Congo authorities have not yet confirmed the report.

The airport, guarded by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has been out of operation since last weekend, amid radio electronic warfare and jamming by rebel forces.

MONUSCO has no mandate for direct military confrontation, their duty is to protect civilians and provide logistical support to the DRC armed forces.

In turn, Rwanda’s New times newspaper said that over 2,000 UN staffers and volunteers of international humanitarian organizations have already left Goma and entered the territory of nearby Rwanda.

Currently, MONUSCO has been redeploying its forces to Uganda, the newspaper reported.M23 units, supported by Rwandan forces, entered Goma late on January 26.

France’s Le Monde reported that although they control a large portion of the city, there are still some pockets of resistance, and the most important of them being near Goma International Airport.

The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been smouldering for decades. After the Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, and the defeat in the civil war in 1993, part of the Rwandan government army, mostly the Hutu, retreated to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they came into conflict with the local Tutsi, the Banyamulenge.

After the Tutsi came to power in Rwanda, it came in support for the Banyamulenge. Eventually, the Banyamulenge were joined by Congolese separatists and deserters from the Congolese army to form the M23 group in 2012.

Rebel groups, composed primarily of the Tutsi, plunged into hostilities in the east of the DRC in January 2021 and by now they have seized several cities and more than 100 villages in the North Kivu province.