Violence escalates – hundreds of thousands flee the M23 militia

//

Lerato Khumalo

Violence in eastern Congo is escalating

Bombs on refugee camps: hundreds of thousands flee

January 24, 2025 – 5:03 p.mReading time: 2 minutes

Enlarge the image

Democratic Republic of Congo: People fleeing the M23 militia arrive by boat in Goma. (Source: Moses Sawasawa)

Fighting between the army and a militia is raging in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The number of displaced people has almost doubled in a week.

The number of displaced people is exploding in the embattled, resource-rich eastern Congo. Around 400,000 people have already fled the conflict between government troops and the M23 militia since the beginning of the year, according to a spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva. The number has almost doubled within a week.

The violence and the humanitarian situation would worsen, the spokesman said. Bombs have been dropped on refugee camps since last week. The result of the attacks: deaths, mass panic and renewed refugee movements. A spokeswoman for the UN Office for Human Rights noted that sexual violence was a major factor in this conflict. Armed groups kidnap, rape and enslave women and girls, she said. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is calling on neighboring Rwanda to stop all support for the M23, the spokeswoman said.

Both the Congolese government in Kinshasa and UN experts accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23 with, among other things, weapons. According to an expert report, there are more than 1,000 Rwandan soldiers in the region. In addition, the M23, which for years was primarily active in North Kivu province, has expanded its activities and is fighting in the neighboring province of South Kivu, from which UN peacekeepers were withdrawn last year.

The fighting is currently approaching the provincial capital of Goma in North Kivu, which is surrounded by numerous refugee camps. In particular, the army and M23 are fighting for control of Sake, a town about 25 kilometers from Goma. The Red Cross in Goma reported an influx of injured people.

Eastern Congo has rich reserves of raw materials. The metal coltan is particularly valuable. The metal plays an important role in the production of laptops, smartphones and the batteries of electric cars. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world’s most important coltan producers. The M23 controls coltan mining in the areas captured by the militia.