“What are we doing now?” Rwanda’s role in the 2021–2020 conflict on Goma, Rwanda, told the Associated Press
The army is going to defend the city, said the authorities. The war has not begun yet. General Sylvain Ekenge said at a press conference that it would start now.
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, hospitals were filled with people wounded by gunshots and/or shelling.
There was gunfire in the northwest of the city on Sunday but the situation on the frontlines was not clear. The airport closed earlier in the afternoon, after the M23 declared it was shutting the airspace over Goma.
The government of Rwanda denies the claim but last year it acknowledged having missiles and troops in eastern Congo to protect its security. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
“The Rwandan-backed M23 is clearly exploiting the presidential transition in the U.S. to advance on Goma — putting thousands more civilians at risk,” Kate Hixon, advocacy director for Africa at Amnesty International US, told the Associated Press.
The UN had long resisted publicly acknowledging Rwanda’s direct involvement in the conflict. Rwanda was the second-largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide in 2024.
Up to 4,000 Rwandan regulars operate in North Kivu, independent experts who report to the UN Security Council report. Rwanda has also deployed high-tech military equipment such as mobile air-defense units to North Kivu to support the M23.
The military said it had taken a number of measures to improve the security of its troops. It also reported that more than one person was injured. Three of them remained in Goma while a fourth one was sent to Uganda for medical treatment.
On Sunday the sound of shelling could be heard all day long, as helicopter gunships from the Democratic Republic of the Mistral flew low. People were trying to escape the fighting and rush to the city center.
“Where can we go besides Lake Kivu?” said Ushindi, a spice seller who lives in Goma. She said she would stay if the M23 showed up, but that power cuts would be a bigger problem. Ushindi said that the rebels could come without us knowing.
But in late 2021 the rebels launched another campaign and swiftly seized control of swathes of territory in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda. The M23 says that it is fighting to protect minorities in Congo, such as the Tutsi, although rights groups accuse it of committing massacres among other abuses.
A southern African regional military deployment comprising South African, Tanzanian and Malawian troops have also been assisting the Congolese army — which is notoriously weak, ill equipped and corrupt.
South Africa’s defense minister, Angie Motshekga, was visiting the country’s troops stationed in Congo as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission the day the soldiers were killed.
Uruguay’s military in a statement issued Saturday identified its member killed in Congo as Rodolfo Álvarez, who was part of the Uruguay IV Battalion. The unit, according to the statement, is working “uninterruptedly to comply with the United Nations mandate, as well as to guarantee the evacuation of non-essential civilian and military personnel from the city of Goma.”
Seven South African soldiers from the SAMIDRC were also killed during clashes with M23 over the last two days, South Africa’s department of defense said in a statement.
The Fighting Crossroads in the Goma-Sake Area: A U.N. Security Council Meeting on the Emerging Violence
The burning wreckage of a white armored fighting vehicle carrying UN markings could be seen on a road between Goma and Sake on Saturday, where much of the fighting was concentrated in recent days.
On Saturday, Congo’s army said it fended off an M23 offensive towards Goma with the help of its allied forces, including U.N. troops and soldiers from the Southern African Development Community Mission, also known as SAMIDRC.
The U.N. Security Council moved up an emergency meeting on the escalating violence to Sunday morning (10 am EST). The meeting had originally been scheduled for Monday.
M23 has made significant territorial gains in recent weeks, encircling the eastern city of Goma, which has around 2 million people and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.