DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Witnesses say they noticed rebels getting into the centre of the jap metropolis of Goma amid gunfire, because the UN requires an finish to the offensive.
Gunfire rang out throughout components of Goma, the biggest metropolis within the jap Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), hours after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels mentioned they’d seized it regardless of the United Nations Safety Council calling for an finish to the offensive.
The armed group introduced town’s seize in a press release early on Monday, because the DRC authorities mentioned their advance was a “declaration of struggle” by Rwanda and the UN mentioned the seize has brought about “mass panic” amongst Goma’s two million residents.
The M23 declare got here minutes earlier than a 48-hour deadline it had given to Congolese troops to give up their weapons expired. Its fighters additionally urged Goma residents to stay calm and for members of the DRC army to assemble on the central stadium.
Two witnesses advised the Reuters information company rebels had entered the centre of Goma. Certainly one of them shared a short video displaying closely armed males strolling by way of the streets, the company reported.
The advance by the M23 insurgent alliance has compelled hundreds in DRC’s mineral-rich east from their properties and triggered fears {that a} decades-old simmering battle dangers reigniting a broader regional struggle.
M23 fighters have been locked in a battle with the Congolese military and UN peacekeepers on Goma’s outskirts for a number of days.
The battle for the important thing metropolis is the newest chapter of combating within the jap DRC, a unstable space that has struggled with regional rivalries, ethnic disputes and armed militia conflicts for greater than three many years, triggering one of many world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In a video posted on X, DRC authorities’s spokesman Patrick Muyaya known as for the safety of civilians and mentioned the nation is “in a struggle scenario”.
Livid over the M23 advance on Goma, the DRC lower ties with Rwanda on Saturday and known as for UN sanctions on its neighbour.
With worldwide strain mounting for an finish to the battle for Goma, Kenya introduced on Sunday that DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame had agreed to attend a summit within the subsequent two days.
Kenyan President William Ruto appealed to each leaders to “heed the decision for peace from the folks of our area and the worldwide neighborhood”.
Ruto, chairman of the East African Group bloc, will maintain an emergency assembly for heads of state on the scenario, mentioned Korir Sing’Oei, principal secretary at Kenya’s Ministry of International Affairs.
At an emergency assembly of the UNSC on Sunday in response to the disaster, Kinshasa’s prime diplomat warned that extra Rwandan troops have been crossing the border “in an open and deliberate violation” of sovereignty.
“This can be a frontal assault, a declaration of struggle that now not hides behind diplomatic artifice,” mentioned DRC International Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner.
Kigali dismissed statements that “didn’t present any options”, and blamed Kinshasa for triggering the latest escalation.
“The combating near the Rwandan border continues to current a critical risk to Rwanda’s safety and territorial integrity and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture,” Rwanda’s Ministry of International Affairs mentioned.
UN specialists say Rwanda has deployed 3,000-4,000 troopers and offered vital firepower, together with missiles and snipers, to assist the M23 in combating in DRC.
In a press release late on Sunday, the UNSC known as for the withdrawal of aggressive “exterior forces” within the area however stopped wanting explicitly naming them.
The assertion got here after UN chief Antonio Guterres known as on Rwanda to drag its armed forces out of DRC – a name rejected by Kigali.
A few dozen international peacekeepers have been killed within the escalating clashes.