Conflict Intensifies In Eastern DR Congo’s Masisi: Residents

Throughout the day, thousands of people fleeing the fighting arrived in disarray in the provincial capital Goma, where two bombs fell, as observed by an AFP team.

« We woke up this morning to the sound of bangs and explosions. We realised that we were all going to die and decided to flee, » Patrick Manga, a 35-year-old father of 4, told AFP as he left carrying two mattresses on his head.

Residents pointed to Sake, a strategic point on the road to Goma as a flashpoint in the latest fighting in North Kivu province in the east of the country.

Florence, a mother of nine who fled Sake, said she had lost some of her children in the chaos.

« I can’t find my children. Other children may have died, please tell Tshisekedi to bring us peace », she cried.

After years of dormancy, the M23 (March 23 Movement) took up arms again in late 2021 and has since seized vast swathes of Nord Kivu.

The territories of Rutshuru and Masisi in the province have borne the brunt of the fighting between M23 and Democratic Republic of Congo armed forces.

After a lull during the December 20 election which returned President Felix Tshisekedi for a second term, fighting has resumed around Goma.

Army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge told reporters late Tuesday there had been « intense fighting » for control of a stretch of highway running between Sake and Minova, a small town in the neighbouring province of South Kivu.

A medical source in Sake said the local health centre had received around 20 wounded people, « mostly civilians » and some of them seriously hurt, in the past three days, while another in Minova reported about thirty such cases.

Two territories in North Kivu, Rutshuru and Masisi, have been gripped by conflict since late 2021 as the M23 or « March 23 Movement » rebels, which DR Congo alleges is backed by Rwandan forces, take on government troops.

The UN backs the claim of Rwandan involvement which Kigali denies.

The unrest has cut off most supply routes to Goma, a city of more one million people near the Rwandan border which the rebels seized more than a decade ago before being driven out.

« I’m currently in Kimoka, two kilometres (1.2 miles) from Sake. It’s a stampede, my brothers and sisters who can’t stand the detonations are now heading for Goma, » one resident who asked not to be named told AFP by phone. A local official said clashes were intensifying in the hills around Sake.

bur-at/pvh/cw