Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) entered the region’s second-largest city of Bukavu on Friday, local and civil society leaders said, the latest ground gained since a major escalation of their yearslong fighting with government forces.
The M23 rebels entered the city’s Kazingu and Bagira zone and were advancing toward the center of the city of about 1.3 million people, said Jean Samy, vice-president of the civil society in South Kivu.
He reported gunfire in parts of the city.
Photo: AFP
Videos posted online appeared to show rebels marching toward the Bagira area. In one of the videos, a voice in the background shouted: “They are there... There are many of them.”
Hours earlier, the rebels had claimed to have seized a second airport in the region, in the town of Kavumu, following a days-long advance, while the UN warned that the recent escalation of fighting with government forces has left 350,000 internally displaced people without shelter.
The M23, which is supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, took control of eastern DR Congo’s biggest city, Goma, in late last month. The rebels are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east.
The rebellion has killed at least 2,000 people in and around Goma and left hundreds of thousands of displaced people stranded, the UN and Congolese authorities have said.
The Associated Press could not immediately confirm who was in control of the Kavumu national airport, which is located about 30km from Bukavu, which is the capital of South Kivu province. Government officials and civil society leaders did not immediately comment.
Kavumu airport became a target after the M23 rebels seized Goma and its international airport. Goma is a critical trade and humanitarian hub that hosted many of the close to 6.5 million people displaced in the conflict, the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said on X that the rebels took over Kavumu airport and its surroundings to “eliminate the threat at the source.”
“The airport posed a danger to the civilian population,” he said.
The DR Congo Ministry of Transport and Channels of Communication issued a statement criticizing the rebels for violating a ceasefire that regional leaders have called for.
The rebels were “imposing an urban war by attacking the positions of the FARDC [Congolese military] who are keen to avoid bloodshed in Bukavu,” the ministry said.
A local civil society leader in Kavumu reported seeing soldiers “abandon their positions and head towards Bukavu.”
“This caused fear within the community, [and] I took the necessary measures to bring my family to safety,” the leader said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi criticized what he described as the failure of the international community to stop the aggression from the rebels and troops from Rwanda.
“This raises the question of the United Nations, which for me has become a two-tier organization depending on whether you are among the powerful or privileged [countries] or whether you are among the weak and disadvantaged,” said Tshisekedi, who is attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
The rebels’ latest advance caused chaos and panic among residents in different parts of South Kivu. Some were fleeing from Kavumu into the provincial capital of Bukavu, while others were emptying from Bukavu into neighboring towns.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS