DRC / Congo - Rwanda-backed M23 rebels capture eastern DRC’s second-largest city
M23 rebels have captured and occupied Bukavu, the second-largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congolese government has confirmed, days after the Rwanda-backed militia launched an attack. In a statement posted on X, the DRC communications ministry said it was monitoring the situation “marked by the entry of the Rwandan army and its auxiliaries” and it was “doing everything possible to restore order, security and territorial integrity”. On Friday, M23 fighters entered Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, after advancing south following the group’s capture of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, last month. The militia faced little resistance in its latest march. One Bukavu resident, Blaise Byamungu, said the had been “abandoned by all the authorities and [taken] without any loyalist force”. “Is the government waiting for them to take over other towns to take action? It’s cowardice,” he said. The rebels marched to the governor’s office over the weekend. Bernard Byamungu, a leader of the group, stood in front of the office and promised to change the status quo. “We are going to clean up the disorder left over from the old regime,” Byamungu said to a small cheering crowd, telling them they had been living in a “jungle”. M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. It says its objective is to safeguard the interests of the Congolese Tutsi and other minorities, including protecting them against Hutu rebel groups who escaped to the DRC after taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that targeted Tutsis. The DRC, the US and other countries have all accused Rwanda of backing M23, which the Rwandan government denies. UN experts say Rwanda’s army is in “de facto control” of the group.