International rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concern for civilians in the town of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after M23 rebels reportedly took control of the city. The rebel group's capture of Goma further threatens the lives of civilians and could lead to further displacement, the rights group said.
Fighting between the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) rebel group and the Congolese army has displaced more than 400,000 people in North and South Kivu provinces since the start of the year, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured in recent weeks.
As fighting between M23 rebels and government forces continues, some humanitarian organizations are relocating their staff because they no longer feel safe. With armed clashes raging in Goma, aid agencies on the ground are reporting shelling, shooting and looting, including in the city center, causing panic and displacement.
A senior UN official in the DR Congo said Monday that fighting between Rwandan-backed rebels and the Congolese army for the important provincial capital is “not over yet,” despite claims by the rebels to have captured the city of Goma.
“Fighting is still very much ongoing,” said Bruno Lemarquis, UN humanitarian coordinator in the DRC. “It's a very, very fluid situation. It's a very dangerous situation.”
He told reporters in New York via a video call from DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, that “active zones of combat have spread to all quarters” of Goma. Lemarquis said there have been severe disruptions to water, electricity, internet and phone service. Humanitarian warehouses have been looted.
Lemarquis described scenes of mass displacement and violence.
“Civilians are taking the brunt of the escalating hostilities,” he said, with heavy artillery fire “directed at the city center” including a maternity hospital.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Monday that despite the difficult circumstances, humanitarian organizations continue to carry out life-saving operations.
Goma, normally a city of about 2 million people, is now home to around 3 million people, including 1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). It is estimated that more than 1.5 million of these are children.
The Rwandan-backed rebels said over the weekend that they had taken control of Goma, the region's largest city and the capital of North Kivu. Residents of Goma, in eastern DR Congo, shared videos on Monday of M23 rebels patrolling parts of the city.
The M23 rebel group launched an offensive to seize Goma several weeks ago, capturing areas closest to the border with Rwanda, which is widely known to support the M23 - something the Kigali government denies.
Large numbers of Rwandan troops have reportedly crossed over from Rwanda to support the M23 offensive, raising fears of a full-scale war between the two East African neighbors. Rwanda stepped up its support for the M23 in 2024, and Rwandan troops are already fighting alongside the M23 in eastern DRC, according to a group of UN experts.
On January 4, the M23 captured the town of Masisi in North Kivu, following an offensive launched by the M23 on January 2 in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed between DRC and neighboring Rwanda last July.
On January 21, the armed group took control of the town of Minova. On January 23, the M23 then captured the town of Sake, about 25 kilometers from Goma.
Some members of the Congolese army and its allied Wazalendo militia have reportedly fled the town, according to local sources. The United Nations in Goma said it had received some men in Congolese uniforms and some in civilian clothes who had handed over their weapons.
Human Rights Watch said it's now concerned for the safety of Goma's civilians, many of whom fled to the city to escape violence and abuse from eastern Congo's many armed groups, including the M23.
Clementine de Montjoye, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, told VOA that concern for civilians among rights groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is at an all-time high.
"We have documented extensively how they have executed people,” she said. “There have been cases of rapes, gang rapes, arbitrary detention, and extortion, and last night, we heard reports of looting inside Goma by the Wazalendo armed group.”
Montjoye added that at "the same time, M23 also has a long history of committing abuses against civilian populations, and since the resurgence of M23 [...] we have documented how they have executed people they accuse of supporting the Congolese army or Congolese government."
Rose Tchwenko, the DRC country director for Mercy Corps, told VOA the humanitarian group has been closely monitoring the situation since last week as government forces and M23 clashed in and around Goma.
“From Wednesday last week, with the fall of Minova, followed by the fall of Sake, which are key supply routes into Goma, the situation looked a little bit more dire with the imminent takeover or incursion into Goma itself by the rebel forces,” she said.
“We made some decisions, first to move out non-essential staff, pull back our teams from the ground where it was no longer safe to continue to provide humanitarian services.”
But that changed quickly, as the situation grew more unstable in the capital of North Kivu province, which is on the border with Rwanda.
“On Sunday with the escalation of the conflict around Goma, we had to pull out even the senior team into Gisenyi (across the border in Rwanda) so that we can continue to operate and provide the necessary support to our teams across the country,” she said, noting that the situation was dire.
“As of yesterday, we know that the airport in Goma is closed and under M23 control,” she said.
“We have heard reports of sporadic fighting throughout the center of Goma city. Some of us on this side of the border could actually [hear] gunshots at some point during the night. We are aware of M23 presence in Goma but still uncertain of what the actual situation is."
At least 13 international peacekeepers were killed as the M23 rebels advanced on Goma last week. Three UN peacekeepers died, and seven South African soldiers and three from Malawi, serving in a separate Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission, were also killed, according to UN and South African officials.
United Nations chief António Guterres has called on the M23 to end hostilities and withdraw from occupied territories in eastern Congo.
After an emergency meeting on Sunday, the United Nations Security Council issued a presidential statement calling for an end to hostilities. The members of the Security Council demanded an immediate halt to the ongoing offensive and advances towards Goma. They also called on the M23 to immediately reverse its territorial expansion.
Bintou Keita, the head of the UN Mission in Congo (MONUSCO), addressed the Council via video link and painted a grim picture.
"Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts,” she said.
“M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed. In other words, we are trapped."
Joyce Msuya, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council that the situation in Goma could have a devastating impact on the civilian population, and urged all parties to take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects during military operations.
Msuya warned that with 21 million people already in need of assistance across the country, the escalation in the east threatens to worsen the humanitarian situation.
The Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs told the UN Security Council that this was "a frontal assault, a declaration of war."
In Nairobi, Kenyan President William Ruto said he had spoken to both the Congolese and Rwandan presidents and called for an "immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities."
Ruto, who is also the chairman of the East African Community (EAC), said he'll convene an extraordinary EAC summit in the coming days to try to find a way out of the crisis.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is already facing one of the world's largest and most under-reported humanitarian crises, characterized by widespread human rights violations and massive forced displacement.
DRC has a population of about 118 million people, with an estimated 21 million in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025, one of the highest numbers in the world. At least 8 million people in the country have been forced to flee their homes. The two eastern provinces of North and South Kivu are already home to 4.6 million internally displaced people.
In both provinces, civilians have been subjected to indiscriminate bombings and sexual violence, while the use of heavy weapons in populated areas has resulted in numerous civilian casualties, including children. The M23 is the most prominent of more than 130 armed groups reportedly active in the strategic and resource-rich eastern DRC.
The eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri have been plagued by violence for decades as non-state armed groups fight for control of the region's rich natural resources. Many of those forced to flee have been displaced several times. Humanitarian needs are urgent, with protection, food, shelter and sanitation among the top priorities.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.