Dozens of protesters in Kinshasa attacked foreign embassies, demanding action against M23 rebels in the country’s east. Police used teargas to disperse them.
Dozens of demonstrators in Kinshasa attacked several foreign embassies — including those of Uganda ,France, Belgium and Rwanda — on Tuesday, demanding that they push back against the advance of M23 rebels in the country’s conflict-battered east.
Police fired teargas at the protesters as they marched to the embassies, reportedly looting and setting fires to parts of the buildings. The embassies of Kenya and Uganda were also attacked, according to witnesses and images seen on social media .
DR Congo’s security forces were attempting to slow the M23 rebels, who advanced into Goma, a key eastern city, in a major escalation of the decadeslong conflict.
The M23 rebels are one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region in the conflict, one of Africa’s largest.
The protesters demanded that the international community intervene to stop the rebel advance.
“We denounce the international community’s hypocrisy,” said Timothée Tshishimbi, one of the protesters. “They must stop this M23 adventure.”
Residents reported gunfire overnight in Goma, a city of 2 million people which the rebels claimed to have captured on Monday. Explosions and gunfire were heard near the now-shut Goma airport.
Goma is a regional trade and humanitarian hub holding hundreds of thousands of the more than 6 million people displaced by eastern DR Congo’s prolonged conflict over ethnic tensions that have resulted in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
The M23 rebels temporarily took over Goma in 2012 before being forced to pull out under international pressure, and resurfaced in late 2021 with increasing support from Rwanda, according to DR Congo’s government and United Nations experts. Rwanda has denied such support.
Peacekeepers among the casualties
Three South African peacekeepers were killed on Monday when the rebels launched a mortar bomb toward the Goma airport, which landed on the nearby South African National Defence Force, while a fourth soldier succumbed to injuries sustained in fighting days ago, the South African Department of Defence said Tuesday.
That makes 17 peacekeepers and foreign soldiers who have been killed in the fighting, according to UN and army officials.
The humanitarian situation in Goma “is extremely, extremely worrying, with a new threshold of violence and suffering reached today,” Bruno Lemarquis, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Congo, told reporters in a video news conference on Monday. He said hundreds of thousands of people were attempting to flee the violence.
There were active combat zones in all areas of the city, with civilians taking cover and heavy artillery fire directed at the city centre on Monday, Lemarquis said. He said several shells struck the Charité Maternelle Hospital in central Goma, “killing and injuring civilians, including newborns and pregnant women.”
“What is unfolding in Goma is coming on top of what is already one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth, with close to 6.5 million displaced people in the country, including close to 3 million displaced people in (the province of) North Kivu,” Lemarquis said.
Aid groups are reporting they are unable to reach displaced people who rely on them for food and other necessities.
“Key roads surrounding Goma are blocked, and the city’s airport can no longer be used for evacuation and humanitarian efforts. Power and water have reportedly been cut to many areas of the city,” said David Munkley, head of operations in eastern Congo for the Christian aid group World Vision.
In addition to the UN, several countries, including France, the UK and the US, have condemned the rebel advance.
Rwanda’s government has blamed Kinshasa for the escalation, saying it failed to honour past peace agreements, resulting in what Kigali said was “sustained defensive posture.”
