The fighting rages around the city

The war hasn’t started yet: The army will defend the city, according to Congolese spokesman Sylvain Ekenge

The army will defend the city, according to authorities in the country. “The war hasn’t started yet. It will start now,” Congolese army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge told reporters in a televised press conference in Kinshasa on Saturday evening.

Hospitals were also overflowing with people wounded by gunshot wounds and shrapnel from artillery strikes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

On Sunday evening, there was still gun fire in the northwest of the city, but the situation was not clear. The airport closed earlier in the afternoon, after the M23 declared it was shutting the airspace over Goma.

According to independent UN experts, the Congolese military does cooperate with the FDLR, as well as a string of other militias in its fight against the M23. Analysts do not consider the FDLR a serious military threat to Rwanda, however.

The M23 rebels are backed by neighboring Rwanda, and they claim to have taken control of the city of Goma.

It had always been against the wishes of the UN to publicly acknowledge the involvement of Rwanda in the conflict. Rwanda was the second-largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide in 2024.

Independent experts who report on the UN Security Council report have 4,000 regulars working in North Kivu. Rwanda has also deployed high-tech military equipment such as mobile air-defense units to North Kivu to support the M23.

A U.N. official told the Associated Press that a pair of South Africans were killed on Friday and a Blue Helmet was killed Saturday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

M23 troops killed in the eastern Congo: South Africa to help the rebels in the city of Goma, the largest country in the world

All day Sunday the sound of artillery fire could be heard across the city, as Congolese helicopter gunships flew low on the way to the frontlines. Thousands of people carrying their belongings were rushing for the city center, trying to escape the fighting.

“We don’t know where to go apart from Lake Kivu”, said Ushindi, a 20-year-old spice seller. She said she would stay put if the M23 arrived, but that power cuts posed a more pressing problem than artillery. The rebels could come without us knowing.

The conflict in the easternCongo has been ongoing for over 30 years, stemming from the 1994 killing of more than one million people in the Rwanda genocide. The M23, which is commanded by Congolese Tutsi officers, first emerged in 2012 as a successor group to earlier Tutsi-led militias in eastern Congo — a region of vast mineral wealth, astounding natural beauty but also extreme poverty. The group captured Goma, but they were driven out and went to ground.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo army is notoriously weak and corrupt, but it has been assisted by southern African troops.

The defense minister of South Africa was in honor of the soldiers that were killed in a UN mission the day that they were killed.

A military statement issued Saturday said that Rodolfo lvarez, a member of its IV battalion, was killed in the Congo. The unit is ensuring that the UN mandate as well as the assurances to evacuate non-essential civilians from the city of Goma are complied with.

The SAMIDRC troops from South Africa were killed in the last two days during battles with M23, said the department of defense.

UN-Secondary Assembly Meeting Meeting of the UNO Security Council for the Goma offensive centered on a white armored fighting vehicle

The burning wreckage of a white armored fighting vehicle carrying UN markings could be seen on a road between Goma and Sake on Saturday, where much of the fighting was concentrated in recent days.

The UN and the Southern African Development Community Mission aided the army in containing the M23offensive towards Goma.

An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council was moved up to Sunday morning because of the violence. Congo requested the meeting, which had originally been scheduled for Monday.

M23 has made significant territorial gains in recent weeks, encircling the eastern city of Goma, which has around 2 million people and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.