M23 rebels have captured and occupied Bukavu, the second-largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congolese government has confirmed, days after the Rwanda-backed militia launched an attack.
In a statement posted on X, the DRC communications ministry said it was monitoring the situation “marked by the entry of the Rwandan army and its auxiliaries” and it was “doing everything possible to restore order, security and territorial integrity”.
On Friday, M23 fighters entered Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, after advancing south following the group’s capture of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, last month. The militia faced little resistance in its latest march.
One Bukavu resident, Blaise Byamungu, said the had been “abandoned by all the authorities and [taken] without any loyalist force”.
“Is the government waiting for them to take over other towns to take action? It’s cowardice,” he said.
The rebels marched to the governor’s office over the weekend. Bernard Byamungu, a leader of the group, stood in front of the office and promised to change the status quo. “We are going to clean up the disorder left over from the old regime,” Byamungu said to a small cheering crowd, telling them they had been living in a “jungle”.
M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. It says its objective is to safeguard the interests of the Congolese Tutsi and other minorities, including protecting them against Hutu rebel groups who escaped to the DRC after taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that targeted Tutsis.
The DRC, the US and other countries have all accused Rwanda of backing M23, which the Rwandan government denies. UN experts say Rwanda’s army is in “de facto control” of the group.
The Burundian army had been supporting the Congolese army to protect Bukuvu. M23’s capture of the city marks an unprecedented expansion of territory by the militia since it resurfaced in 2022. It also further risks escalating the conflict into a regional war.
Almost 3,000 were killed and a similar number injured in the fight for Goma.
Fighting this year has worsened the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC. It has destroyed 70,000 emergency shelters around Goma and Minova, leaving about 350,000 internally displaced people without protection, according to the UN.
On Saturday, the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of militias including M23, said it was committed to “defending” the people of Bukavu. “We call on the population to remain in control of their city and not give in to panic,” the rebels’ spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said.
The DRC government urged calm.
“It calls on the population of Bukavu to stay at home and not expose themselves to avoid being targeted by the occupying forces,” the communications ministry said on X.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
