Rebels supported in Rwanda take control of the airport in Gomi, the largest city of Eastern Congo

On Tuesday, the rebels seized the airport of the largest city of Eastern Congo, Goma, on Tuesday, potentially cut off the main route to help reach hundreds of thousands of displaced people, after catching the city in an offensive that left dead bodies lying on the streets.

The M23 fighters entered Gom on Monday, the capital of the Northern Kiva province. It has been the worst escalation since 2012, a conflict of three decades rooted in a long decline from the Rwanda genocide and the struggle to control the heavy mineral resources of Congo.

The United Nations heard that the rebels control the airport and that they were within Goma, said the spokesman UN’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric on the briefing, describing the situation as “tension and fluid.”

“There are actual risks of interrupting the law and order in the city, given the expansion of weapons,” he warned, adding that the UN -A staff were forced to obscure themselves in their bases.

In the capital of Konshas, ​​1,600 kilometers west of Goma, protesters attacked the joints and embassies of the United Nations, including those from Rwanda, France and United States, expressing anger because of what they said was foreign interference. Plobots flooded the Kenyan embassy.

Goma is the main center of people displaced by fighting elsewhere in Eastern Congo and groups for help they want to help them. The fighting has been sent by thousands of people who have flowed from the city, including those who recently sought a refuge from the M23 offensive from the beginning of the year.

Just across the border in Rwanda, the trucks unloaded a large number of people running away from Goma with their children and bundles of possession wrapped in pieces of fabric.

The Government of the Congo and the head of the UN dormancy said that the troops of Rwanda were present in the crowd, supporting their allies M23. Rwanda said he was defending himself from the threat of Congolian militia, without direct commenting on whether his troops had crossed the border.

Dozens of troops surrender

The residents of Goma and the Sources of the UN said dozens of trunk surrendered, but some soldiers and Prevladina’s militers endured. People in a few fourth reported on Tuesday morning in a small weapon and a few hungry explosions.

“I have heard the crackling of the shooting from midnight so far … comes from near the airport,” Reuters told Reuters, an elderly woman in the northern Goma Northern Marengo, near the airport.

Much of the fight was concentrated around the airport, and by Tuesday afternoon, several diplomatic and security sources said that the M23 rebels took complete control over it, which borrowed them for a vital connection with the outside world.

“Through the UN Airport, humanitarian groups, peacekeeping forces, and even the Congo’s army, they received supplies,” said Congo Christoph Vogel researcher, adding that there is no sustainable approach to the road or ship on Lake Kivo.

Rape reports, robbery

Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN Humanitarian Office, said at the Geneva briefing that colleagues reported “a heavy fire of small weapons and mortars around the city and the presence of many dead bodies on the streets.”

“We have reports on rape committed by fighters, the robbery of property … and the hungry humanitarian health institutions,” he said. Other international assistance officials described the flooded hospitals and were wounded treated in the corridors.

Four major hospitals in the city were treated by at least 760 people wounded by fighting from Sunday, medical and humanitarian sources said, warning that they could not evaluate the exact number of deaths because many people died outside the hospitals.

François Morellon, head of the Red Cross International Committee in Congo, told Reuters that the medication warehouse was robbed and that he was concerned about the laboratory in which dangerous germs were kept, including Ebola.

“If it is hit by a shell in any way that could affect the integrity of the structure, it could potentially allow the germs to escape, which is a big issue of public health far beyond the borders,” he said.

In Kinshas, ​​the angry crowds sang slogans against Rwanda and attacked the embassies of several countries that were considered favorable to Rwanda, lit tires and buildings. Police fired a tear gas to scatter them.

“What Rwanda does is with the complicity of France, now -a Belgium. Congoon accelerates. How many times do we have to die?” Said the protester Joseph Ngoy.

The targets are Ruandan, the French, the US, Ugandan, Kenyan, Dutch and Belgian Embassy. Videos posted on the network and confirm Reuters showed dozens of people robbing the Kenyan embassy, ​​while others showed that the robbery spread to other locations, including a supermarket.

Fear of a wider conflict

The M23 is the latest in a series of ethnic rebel rebels, which brought a tuma to the Congo since the Genocide in Rwanda 30 years ago, when the extremists killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus and then flooded forces under the guidance of Tuts that they still manage Rwanda.

Rwanda says that some of the worn outpatients have taken refuge in the Congo since the genocide, forming militia with federations with the Congole Government and are a threat to the Congolian Tutsis and Rwanda itself.

Congo rejects Rwanda’s complaints and says Rwanda used her proxy militia to control and plunder lucrative minerals like Coltan, which is used in smartphones.

UN’s and global forces are afraid that the conflict could enter the regional war, similar to those in 1996-97 and 1998-2003, who killed millions, mostly of hunger and illness.

Corneille Nanga, the leader of the Congo River, which includes M23, suggested that the aim of the rebels was to replace the President of Felix Tshisecedi and his government in the capital.

UN Mirojnica were caught in the fight. South Africa announced that three of his soldiers were killed in cross -fire between government troops and rebels, and fourth succumbed to wounds from earlier struggles, bringing the number of his deaths up to the 13th.