A senior U.N. official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo said Monday that fighting between Rwandan-backed rebels and the Congolese army for an important provincial capital in the country’s east 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, U.N. resident coordinator in the DRC. “It’s a very, very fluid situation. It’s a very dangerous situation.”
He told reporters via a video call from DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, that “active zones of combat have spread to all quarters” of Goma in North Kivu province. Lemarquis said there have been severe disruptions to water, electricity, internet and phone service. Humanitarian warehouses have been looted.
In early January, M23 rebels broke a ceasefire agreement, launching a large-scale offensive in the east with the support of the Rwandan army. The U.N. says the rebels have made significant territorial gains and are seeking to open a new front in neighboring South Kivu province.
The United Nations Security Council, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and senior U.N. officials are calling for the M23 to immediately cease hostilities and withdraw from occupied territories. They have called for the withdrawal of Rwandan forces and a return to the Luanda process of mediation overseen by Angolan President Joao Lourenco.
“On behalf of the humanitarian community, I call on all parties to agree on temporary humanitarian pauses in the most affected areas and establish humanitarian corridors to ensure humanitarian activities resume at scale. And more importantly, also to facilitate the safe evacuation of wounded individuals and civilians trapped in combat zones,” Lemarquis added.
The United Nations announced Sunday a $17 million disbursement from its central emergency fund for urgent humanitarian needs in DRC.
Lemarquis said nonessential U.N. staff, foreign and Congolese, are being temporarily evacuated from Goma to either Kinshasa or to a U.N. base in Entebbe in neighboring Uganda.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known by its acronym MONUSCO, has also reinforced its positions to counter the rebels’ advance on Goma, deploying a quick reaction force, a rapid deployment battalion, a reserve battalion, a platoon of special forces and an artillery battery.
“At this critical juncture now, the onus really is and has to be about bringing about an immediate cessation of hostilities,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters on the same video call, speaking from Damascus, Syria, where he is on a mission.
“The fate of the millions of civilians living in Goma or having been displaced is really the priority, along with the safety and security of U.N. personnel,” he said.
In the past few days, three U.N. peacekeepers have been killed and several injured in the conflict.
Before the latest round of violence, eastern DRC was already mired in one of the largest and most protracted humanitarian crises in the world, with nearly 6.5 million people displaced due to efforts by armed groups to seize control of the country’s valuable mineral deposits.