Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Reuters) – Early shooting on Monday across parts of Goma, the largest city in the eastern Congo, hours after Rwanda -backed rebels said they had seized the city despite the United Nations Security Council to call End to attack.
The latest progress by the M23 -backed M23 coalition forced thousands of minerals rich in the Congo from their homes and raised fears that the struggle dating back decades is due to the formulation of a broader regional war.
“There is confusion in the city, here is near the airport, we see soldiers. I haven’t seen M23 yet,” one of the residents told Reuters. “There are also some cases of looting of stores.”
Another city resident said there was severe shooting in the center of Goma.
Residents said that the shooting can be heard near the airport and near the border with Rwanda.
It was not immediately possible to determine who was responsible for the shooting, but one of the population said it was likely that they were warning of the shots, not fighting.
The Uruguay army said that the rebels had ordered government soldiers to surrender by 0300 on Monday (0100 GMT) and 100 Congolese soldiers handed their weapons to Uruguay forces on the United Nations peace mission in the Congo (Monosco).
Monusco employees and their families were sitting across the border to Rwanda on Monday morning, where 10 buses were waiting for them.
Kurir Singoy, the main secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya, said that Kenya President William Roto, head of the East Africa Society Bloc, will hold an emergency meeting of the heads of state in this situation.
The eastern borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, are still funds from the rebel regions and a militia in the wake of two consecutive regional wars resulting from genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
The M23, the latest in a long series of rebel movements led by Tursi – says it is present to protect the population of ethnic Tutsi in the Congo.
The United Nations Security Council held a crisis talks on Sunday on the situation in the conflict, which raised one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
UN experts say Rwanda has deployed 3000 – 4000 soldiers and has provided a large fire, including missiles and snipers, to support the M23 in fighting in the Congo.
On Sunday, the United States, France and Britain condemned what they said was Rwanda’s support for rebellious progress.
Kigali rejected the data that “did not make any solutions” and blamed Kinshasa to raise the last escalation.
“The fighting near the Rwandan border is still a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and regional safety, and the constant defensive position in Rwanda requires,” said the Foreign Ministry in Rwanda.
