The M23 rebel group, which has taken control of large parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent years, now says it has captured the key city of Goma, the largest in the area, from government forces. While the DRC government earlier today disputed that the city had fallen to the rebels, there’s no doubt that M23 has made a rapid advance in the last days and tensions between the DRC and neighboring Rwanda — which backs M23 — are growing.
Members of the M23 armed group alongside residents in a street of the Keshero neighborhood in Goma, on January 27, 2025. Photo by STR / AFP -STR
In a statement today, M23 announced it had taken Goma, as the United Nations reported “mass panic” in the city, with the DRC government describing the insurgency as a “declaration of war.”
“We urge all residents of Goma to remain calm. The liberation of the city has been successfully carried out, and the situation is under control,” the M23 spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, said on X.
COMMUNIQUÉ OFFICIEL DE L’AFC/M23 DU 27 JANVIER 2025
Nous demandons à tous les habitants de Goma de rester calmes. La libération de la ville a été menée à bien et la situation est sous contrôle.DU COMMUNIQUÉ
M23 rebels made a lightning advance on Goma, which sits close to the border with Rwanda, yesterday. They then called upon the DRC government soldiers — the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) — to surrender their weapons. The deadline for this expired early Monday morning. According to U.N. peacekeepers, some DRC soldiers gave up their weapons before the deadline.
Map of the city of Goma in the east of the DRC showing the international airport, central prison, and the border post with Rwanda. Photo by Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA and Christophe THALABOT / AFP NALINI LEPETIT-CHELLA; CHRISTOPHE THALABOT
A video purportedly showing a column of vehicles abandoned by the FARDC as its forces withdrew from Goma today:
Meanwhile, videos and photos show rebels patrolling Goma’s main streets, and around the airport. According to the United Nations, M23 now controls key roads in and out of the city and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation and humanitarian efforts. The U.N.’s special representative for Congo told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, “We are trapped.”
At the weekend, the U.N. had said it would withdraw all of its non-essential staff out of the city.
Head of MONUSCO Bintou Keita tell UNSC:
“Today, despite ongoing MONUSCO support to FARDC, M23 and Rwandan forces penetrated Munigi quarter in the outskirts Goma city, causing mass panic and flight amongst the population.
Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used…
Despite this, the DRC government today claimed that its forces still control strategic parts of the city including the airport.
“Contrary to the manipulative messages circulating on social networks the FARDC hold the Goma airport… and all the strategic points of the capital of the North Kivu province,” the DRC government said. It added that its army was “more than determined to defend the homeland at the cost of the supreme sacrifice.”
There have been reports today of heavy artillery hitting central Goma, as well as a mass escape from a prison in the city that was holding 3,000 inmates. There are also reports of the power and water supplies having been cut in many areas.
Unverified videos being shared online appear to show prisoners fleeing a jail in Goma:
A resident told the Reuters news agency that there was “confusion in the city; here near the airport, we see soldiers. I have not seen the M23 yet.”
A local journalist told the BBCtoday that gunfire was continuing in Goma and the situation was “complicated.”
Meanwhile, the chaplain of a hospital in Goma told the BBC that while “we still have quite a number of [FARDC] soldiers that have gathered together… a big part of the city is controlled by the rebels.”
Tens of thousands of residents have reportedly already fled the city, which was home to more than a million people.
This is a continuation of a broader trend in the DRC’s North and South Kivu provinces which border Rwanda. Since the start of the year, more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes here, according to the U.N., as M23 rebels have continued their advance. Of those displaced, more than 178,000 people were forced to leave their homes in the past two weeks.
On the FARDC side, the military governor of North Kivu province, Maj. Gen. Peter Cirimwami Nkuba was killed during fighting against M23 rebels, around eight miles from Goma. He was shot last Thursday, during a visit to the front lines, but his death was only announced today.
The FARDC has been seen using rocket artillery and Soviet-era tanks to try and counter the rebel advance, as well as rocket-armed Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships.
A FARDC Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship flies along the road leading to the entrance of the town of Sake, northwest of Goma, on January 23, 2025. Photo by Michael Lunanga / AFP MICHAEL LUNANGA
The background to the current fighting is complex, with conflict ongoing in the eastern DRC for more than 30 years.
The eastern part of the DRC is rich in mineral resources, control of which has been fought over by various armed groups. As well as the DRC’s own authorities, rebel factions and neighboring countries have been dragged into the fighting. In the process, millions have been killed, with the most violent periods being two major conflicts in the 1990s.
The M23 rebel group now in Goma dates back to 2012, when it was formed out of another faction, with the stated goal of protecting the ethnic Tutsi population in the east of the DRC. Most of the M23 fighters are Tutsis who formerly served with Congolese government forces.
Although M23 has been forced out of the DRC once before, by 2021 they were ready to launch a new offensive.
Both the DRC and the U.N. say that M23 is backed by Rwanda.
For its part, Rwanda neither confirms nor denies its direct backing for M23, although it refutes claims that it has sent its own troops across the border to support the rebels. This is despite reports from the U.N. that, as of last year, as many as 4,000 Rwandan troops were in the DRC.
Reports today citing unnamed intelligence officials suggest that significant numbers of soldiers from the Rwanda Defense Force have crossed the border to support M23, with their numbers and heavy weapons likely to have significantly helped speed the rebel advance.
A pickup truck of the FARDC patrols in Goma, on January 23, 2025. Photo by Jospin Mwisha / AFP JOSPIN MWISHA
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres yesterday called on “the Rwanda Defense Force to stop supporting the M23 and to withdraw from the territory of the DRC,” in a statement that clearly put at least some of the responsibility for the current violence on Rwanda.
Adding to the weight of evidence that Rwandan soldiers are also supporting the M23 offensive was U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who said: “There’s no question that there are Rwandan troops in Goma supporting the M23. Of course, it’s difficult to tell exactly what the numbers are.” The total number of M23 fighters is generally put at more than 8,000.
The Rwandan government has said the latest fighting near its border poses a “serious threat” to its “security and territorial integrity.” It has also blamed the DRC for the escalating violence.
Today, Rwanda blamed shelling by the DRC for killing five people and injuring 26 in the town of Rubavu, on the Rwandan side of the border. “They are desperate, fleeing. They are mounting their weapons, indiscriminately shelling into Rwanda, not targeting forces but targeting civilians,” Rwanda’s military spokesperson toldReuters.
The current conflict also involves around 14,000 U.N. peacekeepers — under the MONUSCO mission — who are primarily tasked with supporting the FARDC in their campaign against M23. MONUSCO troops had been planning to leave the DRC prior to the latest escalation. It is also worth noting that, despite their numbers, only a portion of the MONUSCO troops are allowed to carry out offensive operations — these are the soldiers assigned to the so-called Force Intervention Brigade.
Smoke billows from a MONUSCO armored personnel carrier left on the side of the road in Nzulo, on the main road linking the North Kivu capital Goma to the town of Sake, on January 25, 2025. Photo by Jospin Mwisha / AFP JOSPIN MWISHA
Members of UN mission in DRC MONUSCO, which has also been implicated in the fight against M23 is seen leaving Goma city fleeing to neighboring Rwanda’s Gisenyi city as M23 reaches in less than 2 km from Goma airport. #FactsOnRwandapic.twitter.com/exYj4XkjAE
As of last Friday, MONUSCO said that its peacekeepers were engaged in “intense” fighting against M23 forces.
Separate from MONUSCO is another military force deployed in the eastern DRC — the Southern African Development Community (SADC) — but they have also failed to stop the M23 advance.
In recent days, the various peacekeeping forces have reported multiple casualties.
Armored vehicles belonging to the South Africa National Defence Forces (SANDF) deploy along the road leading to the entrance of the town of Sake, northwest of Goma, on January 23, 2025. Photo by Michael Lunanga / AFP MICHAEL LUNANGA
The apparent fall of Goma is a significant development in the long-running conflict in the African Great Lakes Region. With the airport apparently shut down and roads blocked, the humanitarian and security hub that operated out of the city, serving much of the surrounding region, will also have to cease operations.
Already, the region faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people displaced. Now, the advance of the M23 rebels is further destabilizing the eastern DRC. As a new insurgency threatens to engulf this part of the country, the fear now is of a potential wider conflict involving both the DRC and Rwanda and potentially other countries in the region.
