DR Congo conflict advances as UN calls for peace

A M23 soldier (C) talks with prospective recruits to be enrolled in the armed group controlled police, at a police station in Goma on February 6, 2025. [AFP]

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group continued its advance Thursday through eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and looked poised to seize a strategic town, as United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called for peace.

After capturing Goma, the main city in North Kivu province, last week, the M23 and Rwandan troops launched a new offensive on Wednesday in neighbouring South Kivu province.

Breaking a ceasefire, it had declared unilaterally, the M23 seized the South Kivu mining town of Nyabibwe, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the regional capital Bukavu, despite having said it had "no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities".

Humanitarian and local sources said Congolese forces were now bracing for an assault in the town of Kavumu, which hosts the province's airport.

Equipment and troops are being evacuated to avoid being captured by the advancing M23 and its Rwandan allies, the sources said.

Kavumu is the last barrier before Bukavu, some 30 kilometres away.

One resident told AFP that a "terrible fear" gripped the population on Thursday in towns around the airport.

Speaking at UN headquarters, Guterres said "it is time to end this crisis".

"We are at a pivotal moment and it is time to rally together for peace," he said.

In Goma, where the M23 has installed its own mayor, governor and other authorities, the group convened tens of thousands of people for a public meeting of the River Congo Alliance, a political-military coalition that includes the M23.

The head of the alliance, Corneille Nangaa, told the crowd the group wants to "liberate all of the Congo".

Nangaa called for a minute of silence for the victims of the fighting, before saying that the armed group would "drive out" Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.

"We will set up a national police force, an administration and a justice system," he said.

The DRC issued an international arrest warrant for Nangaa on Wednesday.

'Governing differently'

Young people at the meeting in the city's packed stadium chanted "Go to Kinshasa!", the DRC's capital on the other side of the vast country, which is four times the size of France.

Among the crowd, several people wore T-shirts saying "Governing North Kivu Differently".

The battle for Goma killed at least 2,900 people, the United Nations said on Wednesday, a much higher toll than previously announced.

In more than three years of fighting, the M23's lightning offensive against Goma was a major escalation in the mineral-rich region, scarred by relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups over three decades.

Since the M23 resurfaced in late 2021, the DRC army, which has a reputation for being poorly trained and undermined by corruption, has been forced to retreat.

Fears the violence could spark a wider conflict have galvanised the international community and mediators such as Angola and Kenya in diplomatic efforts.

However, the DRC's top diplomat on Wednesday blasted it as all talk and no action.

"We see a lot of declarations but we don't see actions," Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told journalists in Brussels.

Malawi has ordered its troops serving in a southern African mission in eastern DRC to prepare to withdraw to allow "planned negotiations for lasting peace", its presidency said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Wednesday he had discussed the situation in eastern DRC with European Council chief Antonio Costa and they "agreed on the need for effective de-escalation and a resolution to the conflict that... ensures lasting peace".

He and his DRC counterpart, Tshisekedi, are due to attend a summit of the eight-country East African Community and 16-member Southern African Development Community in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council will convene a special session on the crisis at Kinshasa's request.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, which probes allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, said they were "closely following" events in eastern DRC.

A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda had up to 4,000 troops in the DRC, seeking to profit from its vast mineral wealth, and that Kigali had "de facto" control over the M23.

The eastern DRC has deposits of coltan, a metallic ore that is vital in making phones and laptops, as well as gold and other minerals.

Rwanda has never admitted to military involvement in support of the M23.

It alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.