Panic spreads in eastern Congo's largest city as rebels battling the army close in around Goma
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Panic spread in Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to the city in eastern Congo as they battle the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off in the distant outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought in to the main hospital from nearby towns and villages.
The rebel group has been making significant advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, which is home to around 2 million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts. M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
More than 7 million people have been displaced by the fighting. Last month, M23 captured the towns of Katale and Masisi, west of Goma. “The people of Goma have suffered greatly, like other Congolese,” an M23 spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, said on X. “M23 is on its way to liberate them, and they must prepare to welcome this liberation.”.
M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week. As news of fighting spread, schools in Goma sent students home on Thursday morning. “We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city, that’s why we are told to go home,” Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student.
