Thousands displaced as Congo M23 rebels near Goma in major advance

The advance marks a turning point for the M23 since it launched a fresh insurgency into Congo’s mineral-rich east in March 2022, analysts say.

They never managed to gain this much ground during previous offensives in 2012 and 2013 and the more territory they take, the more opportunity there is for them to generate more mining revenue to fund their campaign, analysts say.

The M23 is the latest in a series of groups of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgents to rise up against Congolese forces. The group, named after the March 23 date of a 2009 accord that ended a previous Tutsi-led revolt, accuses the government of not living up to the peace deal to fully integrate Congolese Tutsis into the army and administration.

There are more than 8,000 M23 fighters, of which around 5,500 have been recruited since September, according to a U.N. experts’ report published this month.

Congo, Western powers and the United Nations accuse neighbouring Rwanda of backing the group with its own troops and weapons. Rwanda denies this.

After seizing the town of Minova on Tuesday, M23 fighters have continued their offensive, moving into the town of Sake, around 20 km (12 miles) from Goma. A local administrator and the head of a civil society group said there were clashes with the army on Thursday morning.

“We used to hear about the war from very far away,” said Alice Maombi Tulinado, 28, a mother of four from Kalehe territory, who arrived on a river boat in Nzulo, around 15 km (9 miles) from Goma, the lake-facing capital of North Kivu province.

“We did not see the war coming upon us. Now it is in our homes,” she said as she joined thousands of others already living in a makeshift camp there.

Minova is around 40 km (25 miles) from Goma, a city of 2 million people including over a million displaced.

“The capture of Minova isolates Goma a little more and opens the way to the capture of other localities … important trade flows and mines,” said Fred Bauma, head of a Congolese research group.

Congo’s army, which has been locked in fighting against the M23 for almost three years, has so far only said that “the enemy has broken through” in Minova. The national army spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about the situation in Sake on Thursday.