GOMA, DR Congo: In a troubling development, rival armed groups have engaged in deadly clashes in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), resulting in the loss of five civilian lives and the displacement of over 50,000 people. This escalation comes after a six-month lull in fighting in the region.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), clashes have erupted between local armed groups and the M23 rebel movement in North Kivu province. OCHA expressed deep concern about the renewed violence since October 1, which raises alarms about a fresh deterioration in the humanitarian situation.
Approximately 51,000 individuals have been forced to flee their homes in DR Congo due to the clashes. This upheaval follows a recent meeting in the provincial capital, Goma, where the main armed groups operating in North Kivu had declared their readiness to lay down their arms. However, coordinated attacks were launched on villages in Masisi and Rutshuru territory shortly after this declaration.
Video footage circulating on social media shows militiamen describing themselves as “volunteers to defend the nation” before engaging in attacks on homes and setting them ablaze. These clashes have disrupted traffic on one of the province’s main roads.
“General” Guidon Shimiray, the leader of a local defense group, who faces UN Security Council sanctions and is wanted by the Congolese government, paraded with his men in the town of Kitshanga, located 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Goma. The M23 rebel group had previously ousted the army from the town in January.
Fighting between rival armed groups flares in #DRCongo, forcing 50,000 to flee https://t.co/PFaiTmQg3s pic.twitter.com/OLaqMLTdgW
— Arab News (@arabnews) October 8, 2023
Residents of Kitshanga reported gunfire and confrontations, leading to local self-defense groups fleeing the area. Some of these groups reportedly engaged in looting as they retreated. M23 rebels subsequently took control of the region, prompting others to leave for the north for their own safety.
Amid this chaos, a nurse confirmed that hundreds of people sought refuge in a health center, including five individuals with bullet wounds.
The M23 rebels, with backing from Rwanda, have captured significant parts of North Kivu, resulting in the displacement of over a million people since launching an offensive in late 2021. Thousands of soldiers from East Africa have been deployed in combat zones this year to patrol a buffer zone between armed groups. However, the DR Congo’s armed forces (FARDC) recently stated that they were not involved in the renewed fighting.
Eastern DR Congo remains a volatile region with dozens of active armed groups, a legacy of the regional wars that ravaged the area in the 1990s and 2000s.
