Rebels from the Rwandan -supported team entered Bukavu, the capital of the province of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after a rapid advancement south in recent days.
The M23 fighters entered the city’s Kazingu and Bagira zone and late Friday advanced to the center of the city of about 1 million people. The gunfire sounded but the rebel forces found a little resistance. The shops and businesses have long closed and are afraid that civilians will flee.
Bukavu had previously fell to the soldiers who had left the Congolese army in 2004 and the city’s acquisition would be given to the total M23 control of the Lake Kivu area. The acquisition represents an uninitiated territorial expansion under the control of the M23 since the latest uprising began in 2022, and faced further blow to Kinshasa’s authority to the east.
Two residents of Bagira, in the northern part of Bukavu, said they saw rebels on the streets and there was no sign of fighting.
“Their uniforms are different. We’ve been ready since the day for their arrival … The Fardc [army soldiers] has left. There are no quarrels, “said resident Helene, who described the watch of the rebels passing through his window.
At earlier, the rebels took the airport to the town of Kavumu, where Congolese troops were positioned. Congolese Army spokesman Sylvain Ekege said the troops were returning after the airport.
He did not say where they were to withdraw, but Congolese and Burundian troops were found to leave the Bukavu’s main military camp, Saio, during the day, two residents and a UN source.
Last month the rebels took Goma, the capital of the province of North Kivu, to a similarly offensive lightning.
On Thursday, the group captured the Kabamba and the commercial center of Katana as they moved south along the N2 Road.
Employees at the airport said it was empty and in effect was closed, with Congolese forces that removed an aircraft and other equipment. Troops were seen returning to Bukavu in military trucks and motorcycles full of mattresses and other belongings.
Corneille Nangaa, the head of the Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebels with the M23, Militias said he had attacked and defended themselves.
Congo president Félix Tshisekedi, traveled to Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference on Friday as he sought international support to end the conflict with the eastern DRC.
“Of course this could lead to a spillover in the region,” he warned the conference, recalling his call for Rwanda to fulfill the responsibility for its role in the conflict. “It’s up to the international community to prevent the spread of this conflict.”
He did not attend the annual African Union Summit this weekend in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa, who focused on efforts to stop the conflict, with the prime minister, Judith Suminwa Tuluka, who took place.
Fighting has taken place in the Eastern DRC for the last three years, but the recent climb in violence has prompted international calls for de-escalation and exacerbated a horrible humanitarian situation. The fighting destroyed 70,000 emergency dwellings around Goma and Minova in South Kivu, leaving 350,000 internal transferred people without shelter, according to the UN.
The M23 is the latest in a string of groups led by ethnic tutsi led by mineral -rich DRC minerals since a deal in 2003 has been intended to end wars that killed 6 million people, mostly from hunger and pain. The group is supported by Rwanda, which says its main interest is to eliminate fighters linked to the 1994 Genocide. The Congolese government and some UN reports say in fact Rwanda uses the group as a way to pick up and then export important minerals for use in products such as mobile phones.
The fight was drawn to the troops of many countries from the inside and outside the continent, including those contributing to a UN peacekeeping mission. Canada announced this week that it removed military personnel from force, citing “increasingly dangerous security conditions” in rubber.
On Thursday a popular Congolese singer was killed in the city while making a music video. Delphin Katembo’s body Vinywiwi, well known by his stage of stage Delcat Idengo, was found on a road near the Kilijiwe district in northern rubber in the afternoon, along with witnesses who said he died in the area after being shot in the head .
Social media images showed the body of Vinywiyi, dressed in military pants for a video shoot, lying on the ground.
Vinywiyi, whose songs often criticized conflicts and human rights violations in the DRC, was one of the roads -inmates that occurred in a rubber prison during the M23 Advance last month. He has been –incarcerated for allegedly urging people to arm themselves and forcing UN’s peacemakers abroad and waiting for trial.
The events around the death of the singer are unclear. Patrick Muyaya, a spokesman for the DRC government, condemned the murder, which he described as disgusting. “Neither is scary, or fear, and even less accidentally against innocent civilians can kill the flame of fighting rubber and across the country,” he wrote to X.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
