Heavy battles between M23 fighters and Congolese government forces in the eastern city of Goma has left many dead bodies on the streets, with hospitals struggling to deal with the growing number of casualties.
On Monday, the rebels, which the United Nations says are backed by Rwanda, marched into Goma and declared the key city under their control, signalling a big blow to the Congolese army and a serious escalation in the years-long conflict that has killed hundreds and displaced millions in the region.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Rural Development Minister Muhindo Nzangi said the Congolese army controlled 80 percent of Goma, with Rwandan troops either on the city’s outskirts or back across the border.
At a news briefing on Tuesday, the UN and other aid agencies warned that hospitals are overwhelmed in Goma treating hundreds of patients with gunshot, mortar and shrapnel wounds while many dead bodies lay in the streets.
“There are currently hundreds of people in hospital, most admitted with gunshot wounds,” said Adelheid Marschang, WHO’s emergency response coordinator for the DRC.
At least 17 people were killed in Goma on Monday, and the AFP news agency reported quoting hospital sources that doctors in the city were treating 367 people wounded in the clashes. Civil society members and NGOs working in Goma put the death toll at 25, with 375 people wounded.
Greg Ramm, country director for Save the Children in DRC, said on Tuesday that while “we have reports that neighbourhoods are calm, a few minutes later, we hear reports of new shelling”.
Heavy small arms fire and mortar fire continued in the streets on Tuesday where many dead bodies could be seen, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office also said at a press briefing, citing reports from UN staff in the city.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said food assistance activities in and around Goma “have been temporarily paused” and expressed concern over food shortages.
Also on Tuesday, South Africa confirmed three of its soldiers had died in the fighting on Monday after getting “caught in the crossfire”. It added that another soldier killed in the recent fighting had also died on Monday, bringing the number of its fatalities in the past week to 13.
The fighting has sent thousands of people streaming out of Goma, which has been a key regional hub for humanitarian aid for displaced people. Hundreds of thousands have fled fighting since the start of the year – on top of 3 million who were displaced in eastern DRC last year.
“The city is in real difficulty and if it hasn’t fallen overnight, it will in the coming days,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told Sud Radio. “Rwanda must put down its weapons, calm must return and dialogue needs to restart.”
One Goma resident told the Reuters news agency that he had seen men in Rwandan army uniforms on Monday.
“In the evening, I went out to see what the situation was. I saw soldiers dressed in brand new Rwandan uniforms,” the resident of central Goma said.
Fire exchanges also took place between Congolese and Rwandan troops on either side of a border crossing near Goma. Five civilians were killed and 25 seriously wounded on the outskirts of Rwandan border town Gisenyi, Rwanda’s military told AFP on Monday.
M23, or the March 23 Movement, is one of hundreds of armed groups operating in the eastern DRC and seeking to control critical mineral mines.
The group is composed of Tutsi fighters and claims it is fighting for the rights of the DRC’s minority Tutsi population. It emerged in 2012 after a group from the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC) broke away, complaining of ill-treatment.
In 2012, M23 first seized Goma, but the Congolese army, supported by the UN forces, pushed the rebels back into the eastern hills on the border with Rwanda in 2013.
The DRC government and the UN accuse Rwanda, under President Paul Kagame, of supporting M23 with soldiers and weapons in a bid to control the mineral-rich eastern DRC.
“There’s no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23,” UN peacekeeping forces’ chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters at a livestreamed event. “It’s difficult to tell exactly what the numbers are.”
Rwanda has denied the charge and accused the DRC of harbouring members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an anti-Kagame rebel group that was involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
As the fighting escalates, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council will hold a meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
The UN Security Council will also meet on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.