The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) army and M23 fighters clashed outside Goma on Friday as the UK, US and France urged citizens to leave the main city in the country’s volatile east, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly.
Since peace talks failed, the militia group backed by Rwandan troops has gained swathes of territory in mineral-rich eastern DR Congo over the past few weeks, triggering a humanitarian crisis and ringing the provincial capital, which is home to a million people.
US, British and French nationals were urged to leave Goma while airports and borders were still open, in online statements or in messages sent directly by e-mail or text. With fighting intensifying, the UN mission in DRC, known as MONUSCO, on Friday said that its peacekeepers were fighting against the M23.
Photo: AP
MONUSCO’s Quick Reaction Forces have “been actively engaged in intense combat,” the UN said in a statement, adding that “over the past 48 hours MONUSCO heavy artillery fire carried out fire missions against M23 positions.”
It said the raging conflict in the North Kivu province had displaced more than 400,000 people this year and could spark a regional war.
The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss the escalating crisis, a spokesperson said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “alarmed by the resumption of hostilities,” his spokesman said in a statement.
“The number of displacements is now over 400,000 people this year alone, almost double the number reported last week,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh, told a news briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday.
UNHCR is “gravely concerned about the safety and security of civilians and internally displaced people” in the east, Saltmarsh said.
“Heavy bombardments caused families from at least nine displacement sites on the periphery of Goma to flee into the city to seek safety and shelter,” he said, adding that many were living rough.
Military sources said clashes took place all day about 20km west of Goma, where cuts to mobile and Internet networks as well as electricity were frequent.
Witnesses said Congolese military helicopters headed Friday toward M23 positions around Sake — 25km northwest of Goma — with explosions heard in western districts of the town.
DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi was due to hold a defense council meeting yesterday, following a crisis meeting on Thursday.
The military governor of North Kivu, General Peter Cirimwami, died on Friday morning, military and UN sources said.
He had been shot on Thursday near the front line.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to