The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, facing a deepening crisis, was set to meet his Rwandan counterpart on Wednesday at an emergency summit. This comes as Kigali-backed fighters appear poised to seize Goma, a vital city.
The M23 armed group took control of Goma’s airport on Tuesday, a security source confirmed, following fierce clashes that left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 injured, according to an AFP tally from overwhelmed hospitals in the city.
Uncertainty looms over how much of the provincial capital remains under Congolese control versus the Rwandan-backed M23, which claimed on Sunday that it had taken the city.
However, as fighting subsided Tuesday night, only M23 fighters and Rwandan troops were seen patrolling the streets, AFP journalists reported.
The security source added that “more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined” at the UN mission’s airport base in the DRC.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi was expected to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday at an “extraordinary” East African Community summit hosted by Kenya.
Ahead of the crisis talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Kagame to halt the fighting, a conversation the Rwandan leader later described as “productive.”
M23’s rapid advance marks a significant escalation in the turmoil gripping eastern DRC, a region still haunted by the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and entangled in armed conflicts fueled by regional rivalries.
The offensive has sparked a spiralling humanitarian disaster. The UN warns that hundreds of thousands have been displaced, aid supplies have been looted, hospitals are overflowing, and the risk of disease outbreaks is growing.
Destin Jamaica Kela, who fled to Rwanda as the violence engulfed Goma, described the chaos: “Things changed very fast. Bombs were falling, people were dying everywhere—we saw bodies.”
Embassies Attacked Amid Public Fury
Meanwhile, in Kinshasa, protesters stormed embassies, furious at what they saw as international inaction. Demonstrators targeted the missions of France, Belgium, the United States, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, setting fires outside several. The Rwandan embassy was also attacked.
In response, the US embassy urged its citizens to leave the country. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned the embassy attacks as “unacceptable” and “deeply troubling.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported a flood of wounded people arriving at Goma’s overcrowded hospitals, with some patients left lying on the floor due to space shortages.
An even graver concern looms—a local laboratory in Goma stores samples of Ebola and other dangerous pathogens. If fighting disrupts containment measures, the consequences could be “unimaginable,” the Red Cross warned.
The UN refugee agency estimates that violence in North Kivu province has forced half a million people from their homes since the start of the year.
African Union Urges M23 to Surrender
During a UN Security Council session on Tuesday, peacekeeping officials warned that the escalating violence could reignite long-standing ethnic conflicts dating back to the Rwandan genocide.
“In the past four days, the Human Rights Office has documented at least one case of ethnically motivated lynching in a displaced persons camp in Goma,” said Vivian van de Perre of the UN’s DRC mission (MONUSCO).
The Congolese government expressed frustration after a previous UN statement failed to explicitly name Rwanda. Similarly, the African Union, in an emergency meeting on Tuesday, urged M23 fighters to “lay down their arms” without directly condemning Kigali.
Kinshasa has long accused Rwanda of exploiting the mineral-rich region, which holds gold, coltan, copper, and cobalt, and is demanding stronger UN intervention.
Rwanda denies these allegations, insisting its military operations target the FDLR, a group formed by Hutu extremists responsible for the 1994 genocide.
In his call with Kagame, US Secretary of State Rubio “urged an immediate ceasefire and respect for sovereign territorial integrity.” Kagame later posted on X that the conversation had been “productive” and centred on securing a truce in eastern DRC.
China’s ambassador to the UN, Fu Cong, urged Rwanda on Tuesday to heed international calls to “stop military support” for M23.
At least 17 peacekeepers from a southern African regional force and the UN’s DRC mission have died in the conflict.
M23 previously seized Goma in late 2012 before being repelled by Congolese forces and UN peacekeepers the following year. The group resurfaced in 2021, swiftly capturing vast areas of North Kivu.
A UN expert report in July claimed up to 4,000 Rwandan troops were embedded with M23 and that Rwanda had “de facto control” over its operations.
A ceasefire agreed upon in August collapsed, and Angola-brokered peace talks were abruptly called off last month.
