Congo's M23 rebels move south towards Bukavu in new push after Goma seizure

M23 forces were advancing south from the town of Minova, along the western side of Lake Kivu, according to five diplomatic and security sources, one of whom was in direct contact with the rebels.

Any successful push south by M23 would see them control territory that previous rebellions have not held since the end of Congo's major war two decades ago, and further raise the risk of a new all-out war drawing in forces from multiple countries.

The conflict in eastern Congo has been going on for decades and is rooted in the spillover from Rwanda's 1994 genocide into Congo and in the struggle for control of Congo's lucrative mineral mines. The fall of Goma to M23 is its gravest escalation since 2012, when the rebels last occupied the city.

Rwandan forces are present in Goma backing up M23, according to Congo and U.N. sources, while Burundian forces have been sent to beef up Congo's defences in South Kivu. Rwanda has not commented directly on its troops' presence on Congolese soil.

Rwanda and Burundi are small countries that border each other and Congo. They have hostile relations, with Kigali and Bujumbura accusing each other of supporting their respective opponents.

In their push into South Kivu, M23 fighters are approaching Kavumu, where Bukavu's airport is located. Their approach risks triggering a battle with large numbers of Congolese and Burundian troops, said Christoph Vogel, a Congo analyst and former U.N. investigator.

In Goma, capital of North Kivu and a hub for displaced people, aid workers, U.N. peacekeepers and Congolese forces, the rebels were consolidating their hold on the city and patrolling the border with Rwanda.

A flurry of diplomatic activity, including the United States telling Rwanda it was "deeply troubled" by Goma's fall and Germany cancelling aid talks with Rwanda, was having no apparent effect on the ground.

MERCENARIES EXIT VIA RWANDA

Isolated gunfire sounded through some outlying districts of Goma, a lakeside city of 2 million, where Monday's rebel storming left bodies lying in the streets, hospitals overwhelmed and U.N. peacekeepers sheltering in bases.

"It feels like we are in a dual nation. We are in Congo and at the same time in Rwanda," a resident of an upscale part of Goma said.

At a border crossing between Goma and its Rwandan twin city of Gisenyi, Reuters reporters saw dozens of Romanian mercenaries who had been hired by Congo to bolster its defences crossing the border into Rwanda -- the start of their journey home, one said.

They lined up to have their luggage searched by Rwandan police sniffer dogs. After being body-searched and having their documents checked, they boarded coaches to Kigali. Rwanda said it had received more than 280 of the mercenaries.

Congo had turned to private military companies to stem M23's progress in the last two years, but they appeared to offer little resistance when the rebels marched into Goma on Monday.

M23 is the latest ethnic Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed insurgency to fight in Congo since the aftermath of the genocide 30 years ago, when extremist Hutus killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and then were toppled by Tutsi-led forces led by Paul Kagame. He has been Rwanda's president ever since.

Rwanda says some of the ousted perpetrators have sheltered in Congo since the genocide, posing a threat to Congolese Tutsis and Rwanda itself. Congo rejects Rwanda's complaints, and says Rwanda has used its proxy militias to loot its minerals.

In a report, U.N. experts detailed M23's seizure in April 2024 of a coltan mine at Rubaya, the largest in the Great Lakes region, and the illegal export since then of at least 150 tonnes of coltan, which is used in smartphones, via Rwanda.

The eight-state East African Community, of which Congo and Rwanda are members, was due to hold an emergency summit on the crisis on Wednesday evening.

A Rwandan government source said Kagame would attend. Congo's president, Felix Tshisekedi, was not expected to participate, a source at the presidency and a regional diplomat said.

Congo's presidency said Tshisekedi would address the nation on Wednesday.