The panic spread to the crowd Thursday, with the rebels of the M23, which are increasingly approaching the city in Eastern Congo as they fight with the Congenian army. Explosions of bombs were heard in remote suburbs, and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought to the main hospital from nearby cities and villages.
The rebel group has progressed significantly in recent weeks, approaching the crowd, which is home to about two million people and a regional center for security and humanitarian efforts.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that fight for a foothold in minerals rich in eastern Congo, along the border with Rwand, in decades of a long conflict that has created one of the world’s greatest humanitarian crises.
More than seven million people have been displaced for fighting. Earlier this month, the M23 has occupied the cities of Mines, Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.
“The people of Gome suffered very much, like other Congoans,” said M23 spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuk, on the X. “M23 is on the way to release them and they have to prepare to welcome this liberation.”
M23 took Goma in 2012 and controlled for more than a week.
While news of the fighting spread, schools in the crowd sent students home on Thursday morning.
“We were told that the enemy wanted to enter the city. So we were told to go home,” said Hassan Kambaale, a 19-year-old high school student. – We keep waiting for bombs.
Rwanda accused of supporting the rebels
Congo, the United States and the UN experts accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, which is mainly consisting of ethnic Tutsi that separated from the Congoan army more than ten years ago.
Rwanda’s government denied this claim, but last year admitted that she had troops and rocket systems in Eastern Congo to protect her safety, pointing to the accumulation of congoan forces near the border. UN experts estimate that up to 4000 Rwande forces in Congo.
On Wednesday, the Congenian Minister of Communication Patrick Muyaya told French television France 24 that the war with Rwanda was “an option to consider.”
Congoan authorities claimed Thursday that the army rejected the “Ruande Army” attack on Sake, a city only 23 kilometers from Goma. Associated Press failed to check that the Rwandan army participated in the offensive.
The situation in Sake remains unclear, and some residents claim that the rebels entered and occupied the city.
“The population is in panic. M23 now controls large parts of the city,” said Leopold Mwisha, president of the Sake Civil Society.
The US Embassy in the Congo’s capital, Kinshasi, on Thursday warned of “an increase in the seriousness of armed conflict near Sake” and advised US nationals in the North Kiva province, which includes Goma, to be careful in case they need to leave their homes in the short term .
The United Kingdom also issued a warning for travel stating that the M23 now controls Sake and invites British nationals to leave Goma while the roads are open.
The hospital is stretched to the end limit
Many Sake residents have joined more than 178,000 people who have escaped in front of M23 in the last two weeks.
The CBCa Ndosho Hospital in Gomi was tense to the limit, with hundreds of new ones on Thursday.
Thousands of people escaped from the fights on Wednesday, breaking north across Lake Kivo and pouring from packed wooden boats in the crowd, some with the bundles of their things tied around the forehead.
Neem Matdo said she fled Sake during the night, when the first explosions began to echo. She said she saw people torn and killed around her.
“We have run away, but unfortunately” others are not, Matono said.
Mariam Nasib, who fled Sake with her three children, was in tears – one of her children lost her leg, blown in ruthless shelling.
“As I continued to run, the second bomb fell in front of me and hit my baby,” she said crying.
