Rwanda-Backed Rebels, Congo Forces Fight for Control of Goma
(Bloomberg) -- Fighting between Rwanda-backed rebels and the Congolese army continued for a second day in Goma on Tuesday amid calls by African leaders for an immediate ceasefire.
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M23 fighters stormed the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city on Monday in an attempt to capture the trading and humanitarian hub that’s home to 2 million people. The assault on the city drew condemnation from the US and the United Nations, as Rwandan President Paul Kagame faced growing pressure to stop backing the rebel group.
Almost 3 million people — more than one-third of the population of the North Kivu province that includes Goma — are now displaced, according to the UN. Shelling from the conflict struck a maternity hospital, killing women and children, it said.
The UN Security Council is set to discuss the crisis at an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday.
Combatants fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifles in several districts of Goma on Tuesday, forcing civilians and UN staff members to take cover, said two people present in the city who asked not to be identified because they fear for their safety.
Protesters threw rocks and lit fires outside the embassies of Kenya, Belgium, France, US, and at the UN Development Program building in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, which lies almost 1,000 miles from Goma, and ransacked the Rwandan and Ugandan embassies. Congo’s foreign ministry apologized for the destruction.
Rwanda’s 2031 dollar bond weakened for a second day, with the yield jumping 25 basis points to 8.89% — the highest since October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Rwandan bond was among the worst performers on Tuesday in a Bloomberg index of dollar debt from emerging and frontier markets.
“Investors are perceiving higher risks with Rwanda’s bonds. This is directly related to Rwanda’s involvement in the eastern DRC,” said Jervin Naidoo, a political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa. With the negative media attention Rwanda is receiving, “any strain in Rwanda’s relationships with donor countries or institutions may increase funding risks,” he said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he spoke with Kagame on Monday and they both “agreed on the urgent need for a ceasefire and the resumption of peace talks.”
The conflict in eastern Congo has simmered since the mid-1990s in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. The current violence involves dozens of armed groups, fights over political and economic power, long-running ethnic tensions and troops from countries including Uganda, Burundi, South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.
Among the groups that operate in eastern DRC are Hutu militias that have links to the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide — in which 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis died. They created an armed group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which is now allied with Congo’s army against the M23.
Though Rwanda has long denied actively supporting the M23, UN Chief of Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters on Monday that Rwandan troops were present inside Goma.
“There is no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23,” he said. The numbers are “very significant” —in the region of 3,000 to 4,000, he said.
Active zones of conflict have spread to several areas of the city. Radio Okapi reported late Monday that the Congolese army had taken back control of the state-backed television and radio headquarters in the city.
The World Food Programme said it’s halted food distribution in Goma, a situation that may lead to scarcity and rising inflation as the airport and major access roads within the region have been cut-off.
“Depending on the duration of violence the supply of food into the city could be severely hampered,” the UN food agency said in a statement. “This is a huge test for Congolese trapped by the fighting in Goma and surrounding areas — of their resilience — and the next 24 hours will be critical as people start to run low on supplies.”
The fighting is complicating contact tracing and infection prevention for mpox, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X. North and South Kivu provinces “have recorded more than 20,000 suspected cases of mpox since 2024, including more than 6,000 in the last six weeks,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi by phone on Monday, according to a State Department statement. Rubio condemned the assault on Goma by “the Rwanda-backed M23” and affirmed the US’s respect for the sovereignty of the DRC, it said.
US Senator Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Bloomberg that M23’s entry into Goma risks unleashing “a broader regional conflict.”
“The siege of Goma must end immediately, and M23 must withdraw,” Risch said. “All combatants must stop targeting civilians, pursue a peaceful settlement, and humanitarian partners must be provided with unfettered access to those in dire need.”
--With assistance from Mpho Hlakudi, Mike Cohen and Monique Vanek.
(Updates with UN Security Council meeting in fourth paragraph, investor comment in eighth.)
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