GOMA: After seizing the city of Goma, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were reportedly attempting to extend their sphere of influence in the country’s east by heading south on Wednesday towards Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu.
Five security and diplomatic sources, one of whom had direct contact with the rebels, said M23 soldiers were moving south from the town of Minova, along the western bank of Lake Kivu.
M23 would take control of land that previous uprisings haven’t had since the end of the Congo’s big war 20 years ago if they were to successfully push south.
They would need to take control of Kavumu, the location of the city’s airport, and defeat Burundian forces stationed to bolster Congo’s defenses in order to get to Bukavu.
M23 troops were observed patrolling the Rwandan border and severing chains that were obstructing traffic.
As M23 tightened its hold on Goma, the capital of North Kivu and a gathering place for displaced people, relief workers, UN soldiers, and Congolese forces, the advance on Bukavu occurred.
Numerous mineral mines can be found in both North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and the competition for control of Congo’s wealth is one of the main causes of strife in the east of the enormous nation. One of these, coltan, is utilized in cellphones.
There were increasing indications that the rebels were taking control of the city, even though there was a flurry of diplomatic activity, including the US warning Rwanda that it was “deeply troubled” by Goma’s capitulation to M23 fighters.
The two-million-person lakeside metropolis saw isolated shooting in a few outlying neighborhoods, after Monday’s rebel storming left UN soldiers taking refuge in bases, hospitals overrun, and bodies laying in the streets.
While M23 rebels were observed patrolling the Rwandan border and removing padlocks and chains that had blocked traffic for both cars and pedestrians, Congolese government soldiers were nowhere to be seen in the city center.
We seem to be in two different countries. We are in Rwanda and Congo at the same time,” a resident of a posh neighborhood in Goma stated.
Mercenaries depart
Hundreds of strong white men, some wearing fatigues, were observed approaching the Rwandan side and waiting in line to have their bags inspected by police sniffer dogs at a border crossing between Goma and Gisenyi, its twin city in Rwanda. They agreed to allow Rwandan officials to search their bodies.
According to Rwandan officials and UN sources, the Congo government had engaged them as mercenaries. Many of them were Romanian citizens. One said to Reuters that he was from Romania and had spent roughly two years in Goma.
The mercenaries were searched, put on coaches, and driven off.
Congo looked to private military firms to try to bolster their defenses as the Rwandan-backed rebels gained territory over the past two years, but when M23 marched into Goma this week, the mercenaries seemed to put up little of a fight.
Since the genocide in Rwanda thirty years ago, when radical Hutus massacred Tutsis and moderate Hutus before being overthrown by Tutsi-led forces under Kagame, M23 is the most recent ethnic Tutsi-led insurgency to rage Congo with Rwandan support.
Rwanda claims that following the massacre, some of the expelled criminals have sought refuge in Congo, endangering both Rwanda and Congolese Tutsis. Congo denies Rwanda’s grievances, claiming Rwanda has plucked rich minerals through its proxy forces.