Rwandan-backed rebels clash with Congolese forces over control of Goma

M23 rebels said they have advanced into Goma, a large city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been displaced.

NAIROBI — A crisis escalated in the Democratic Republic of Congo early Monday as the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group engaged in heavy, armed clashes with government forces in Goma, the capital of the country’s eastern North Kivu province.

The rebels’ advance — threatening to wrest control from Congo’s government over the largest city in the country’s east — was condemned by Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner as a “declaration of war” by Rwanda. The United Nations said the surge in hostilities has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused “mass panic” among civilians.

Confusion and fear gripped the city Monday as residents reported bombardment across Goma.

“We are surrounded; there is no place to go,” Safari Kanyagala Patrick, a taxi driver in Goma, said in a phone interview Monday morning from his home near the city’s center, where he said he and his family were barricaded.

“They have been fighting since yesterday 12 p.m., and it has not stopped since,” he said. Government troops were racing between positions in the city as bombs fell, with residents unable to flee because of closed roads, Patrick added.

Muzige Gakiza, 35, another Goma resident, said in a telephone interview that there was fighting outside his home. “We have been locked up in the house since yesterday,” he said. “I can’t talk now, but the situation is dire, and we need help,” he added before hanging up.

It was not immediately clear who was in control of Goma on Monday.

A spokesman for M23, Lawrence Kanyuka, hailed the “liberation” of Goma by his forces in a statement posted on X early Monday. He called for members of the Congolese military to lay down their weapons and for the city’s residents to “remain calm.”

But Jimmy Bakomera, a journalist in Goma, told The Washington Post on Monday morning that government forces were still present in some parts of the city.

Patrick Muyaya, a Congolese government spokesman, said the Rwandan army was present in Goma and requested that the city’s residents stay at home and refrain from looting. “Not a single centimeter will be given up,” he said Monday on X, urging his compatriots to give their full support to the Congolese army as they fought to defend the city.

A Rwandan government official did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Amid the fighting, local media outlets reported that thousands of inmates at the city’s Munzenze prison broke free, setting the prison partially on fire. Fleeing prisoners could be seen in the surrounding streets, Agence France-Presse reported.

According to a statement released Sunday evening by the Uruguayan army, which is supporting the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Goma, the rebels were on the offensive — clashing with the Congolese military and prompting over 100 Congolese soldiers to lay down their arms.

In an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Sunday, Bintou Keita, head of the U.N. stabilization mission in Congo, said that roads leading to Goma were blocked and that the rebels announced the closure of the airspace over Goma.

“In other words, we are trapped,” Keita said.

Three U.N. peacekeepers in the region were killed in the past two days, and 11 others were injured, Keita said Sunday. She added that the general in charge of North Kivu was also killed on the battlefield last week and that the rebels have made inroads into the neighboring South Kivu region.

The M23 — or March 23 movement — rebel group is largely made up of members of the Congolese Tutsi ethnic group. It seized control of Goma in 2012, holding the city for 10 days before withdrawing under international pressure.

The group’s latest advance threatens to plunge mineral-rich Congo into another cycle of intense violence. About 6 million people have died of war-related causes since 1996, according to the United Nations. The fighting this year alone has left about 400,000 displaced in North and South Kivu, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimated Friday, stating that the figure nearly doubled from a week prior.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called on the Rwanda Defense Forces on Sunday to end its support of M23 and withdraw from Congo.

Last week, the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, advised American citizens to leave North Kivu while borders are still open, citing the escalating violence.