AFRICA/DR CONGO - "Did the flight of the military leadership facilitate the capture of Goma?"

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "In Goma there are 2 million people in need," local Church sources, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told Fides. "At least a million of them are displaced from other areas of North Kivu previously affected by the war."
On the capture of the capital of North Kivu (eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo) by the M23 troops supported by Rwanda, the observers report: "The collapse of the Congolese army (FARDC) began on Sunday evening, when the commanders left the city on several boats, heading from the port of Goma on Lake Kivu to Bukavu (capital of South Kivu), about 100 kilometers away. From there, the military leaders boarded a plane that took them to Kinshasa. The troops, which no longer had a commander, were faced with well-equipped M23 rebels and soldiers of the Rwandan army. The M23 rebels and the Rwandans quickly took over the city's main points: the center, the port and the airport. Several Congolese soldiers surrendered to the rebels or handed themselves over to the MONUSCO peacekeepers." "The conquest of Goma was bloody, with several dead, many of whom are still lying in the streets of the city. There are at least a thousand injured, which is putting additional pressure on the health system, which is overwhelmed by the lack of water, electricity, food and medicine," the observers continued.
Today, January 29, "the situation in Goma appears to be calming down, although isolated shootings have been reported in some districts," the observers continued. "But food warehouses, including that of the World Food Programme (WFP), and markets have been looted. There is a lack of electricity because the high-voltage pylons have been knocked down; As a result, there is a shortage of water, which is pumped from Lake Kivu and then purified in special plants that cannot function without electricity. The plundering of supplies and the interruption of deliveries from the surrounding area have led to a food shortage that is becoming more dramatic by the hour." On the political level, Corneille Nangaa, the leader of the Congo River Alliance, which also includes the M23 movement, announced that they intended to overthrow the government in Kinshasa. "This had already happened in 1997, when rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda, starting from the east of what was then Zaire, took Kinshasa and forced then President Mobutu to flee," our observers said. It is suspected "that the M23 will march on Bukavu, trying to cause as few casualties as possible, because Nangaa is a Congolese politician who is trying to exploit the discontent among the soldiers who feel betrayed by their commanders; among other things, despite the army's spending, the soldiers are poorly equipped and do not even have the right clothing to face the cold, bearing in mind that we are here at an altitude of 1,500 to 1,700 meters," the observers conclude.
Corneille Nangaa was president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) from 2015 to 2021, but was sentenced to death for treason in August 2024 after founding the Congo River Alliance in 2023. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 29/1/2025)

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