Rebels edges closer to taking control of goma

Rebels appear to be closer to taking control of the most important city of Goma in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo after reports that they had caught its airport.

The Congole Government has insisted that it is still responsible as the fighting in parts of the city continues. Stock with food and medical supplies has been looted, says auxiliary agencies.

The clashes between M23 rebels and the army and its allies have left hospitals overwhelmed by damage and bodies lying on the streets, according to the UN.

Growing anger over the rebel offensive led to protesters targeting foreign embassies in the capital, Kinshasa. Calls for peace talks to end the matches are fitted.

Neighboring Rwanda has been accused of supporting the Tutsi-led M23 as it made a rapid progress in recent months in the mineral-rich region.

Rwanda has consistently denied this.

On Tuesday, new US State Secretary Marco Rubio Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame called on to secure an immediate ceasefire in Dr. Congo.

Kagame said in a post of X that they agreed on the need for a ceasefire and addresses “root causes of the conflict”.

Kenya’s President William Ruto has said that both Tshisekedi and Kagame will attend an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the situation, but the two leaders have not confirmed that they will attend.

Lakeside City of Goma, on the border of Rwanda, is an important transport and trade hub close to large sources of minerals that are essential in the manufacture of mobile phones, among other things

After a meeting on Tuesday, the African Union (AU) urged M23 to put down its arms.

AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner, Bankole Adeye, condemned “Violence by M23 and all other negative forces and calls for full respect for Dr. Congo’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity,” a statement from AU said of X.

When diplomats discussed the situation, the rebels seemed to win a place in Goma.

“They’ve taken control of the airport, M23 warriors are there,” a security source told AFP News Agency.

“More than 1,200 Congolesian soldiers have surrendered and are limited to [UN base] at the airport. “

Earlier on Tuesday, Adelheid Marschang, the World Health Organization’s coordinator of emergency response to the Democratic Republic of Congo talked about “Hundreds of People in the Hospital, mostly recorded with gunshot wounds”.

In a speech with journalists in Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said his Goma hospital had received more than 100 wounded in just 24 hours, a number it previously received in a month.

It said this had forced its staff to transform the hospital’s parking lot into a triage unit.

The use of heavy artillery in densely populated areas causes serious injuries, especially among children, it added.

In Kinshasa, angry crowds, including Frenchmen, Kenyan and Ugandan embassies.

They stormed the streets, burned tires and disturbed traffic.

Kinshasa authorities have since banned protests in the city. The US Embassy asked its citizens to leave the country “while the commercial [flight] Operations are available “after the attacks, while the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas branded them” unacceptable “and” deeply troubled “.

In addition to civilian deaths, South Africa said on Tuesday that four more of its soldiers who are in Dr. Congo as part of peacekeeping efforts had died as a result of clashes with M23.

This brings the total number of South African deaths to 13. Malawi and Uruguay have also lost peacekeepers.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke on Monday with his Rwandan colleague Paul Kagame, where the two agreed on an urgent need for truce and resumption of peace talks.

The Congole Government has also asked for another meeting of the UN Security Council – and requires this time to take hard action against Rwanda.

During an emergency meeting on Sunday, Dr. Congo sanctions against Rwanda and said its forces had crossed into its territory in what constituted a “declaration of war”.

After the meeting, the UN M23 condemned progress and the “ongoing obvious ignoring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Dr. Congo”, including the presence of “external forces”.

Rwanda has previously refused direct support to M23, but the UN peacekeeping boss Jean-Pierre Lacroix has said there is no doubt that its troops supported the rebels.

Further reporting from Emery Makumeno in Kinshasa, Imogen Foulkes in Geneva and Basillioh Rukanga and Barbara Plett Usher in Nairobi.