People head out onto Kivu Lake with their belongings from the Bulengo camp for displaced people near Goma, Democratic Rebuplic of Congo, on Tuesday after being ordered to vacate by the M23 armed group and return to their villages and towns. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 110,000 displaced people had fled since the city fell to the rebels in late January. Photo by Nadaa Kahashy/EPA-EFE
Feb. 17 (UPI) — M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo captured the eastern city of Bukavu with the backing of Rwandan forces, the second major city in the mineral-rich Kivu region to fall in three weeks, the government said.
In a post on the official X account of the Ministry of Communication and Media, the government said Sunday that Bukavu had been entered by the army of neighboring Rwanda “and its auxiliaries,” referring to the so-called M23 rebels, and was monitoring the situation hour by hour, urging residents to stay in their homes.
The government said it was doing everything possible to restore order, security and the territorial integrity of the DRC, accusing Rwanda of defying international efforts to end the fighting, including a call for a cease-fire last week by the East African Community and the South African Development Community at a regional summit in Tanzania called to address the crisis.
“Contrary to the Dar-es-Salaam resolutions, to the calls for a cease-fire from the international community, including the involvement of President [Emmanuel] Macron, Rwanda persists in its plan of occupation, looting and commission of crimes and serious violations of human rights on our soil,” said the ministry.
“Bukavu, Goma and all the other occupied corners in North Kivu and South Kivu are the symbol of our resistance. Let us all remain standing, vigilant, resilient and united in the face of this ordeal behind our armed forces and the President of the Republic, Supreme Commander [Felix Tshisekedi].”
However, The New York Times reported that M23 rebels met no resistance as they entered the city of two million after government forces fled, creating an interim power vacuum exploited to the maximum by gangs of people who looted shops and warehouses.
“We’re there, we’re there in Bukavu,” M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma told the paper by phone.
The BBC reported that some people came out onto the streets to greet the occupying forces.
One resident described scenes of chaos before the arrival of the rebels after youths who had got ahold of abandoned weapons sprayed the city with gunfire and engaged in looting. She said she didn’t know if people’s reaction to the M23 was out of fear or because they realized the authorities no longer existed.
A U.N. warehouse holding 7,000 tons of food was looted, the U.N. World Food Program reported.
An unknown number of inmates were also reported to be free after breaking out of the city’s main prison.
A summit in Addis Ababa of the African Union at the weekend added its voice to growing calls for the M23 to disarm.
The Congo River Alliance (AFC), which includes the M23 group, announced a unilateral cease-fire Feb. 4 in response to what it said was the humanitarian crisis” caused by the Kinshasa regime [the DRC government].”
Tshisekedi has been calling for international sanctions on the Tutsi-led Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame, accusing him of fomenting violence and intervening militarily so that Rwanda can get hold of the DRC’s valuable mining and mineral deposits, including diamonds, gold, copper and cobalt and lithium — key metals for making EV batteries
The DRC is the world’s largest cobalt producer, accounting for more than two-thirds of global output, 130,000 tons in 2022, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.
