Rwanda-Backed M23 Advances in DRC as Volunteers Rally to Fight Back

Members of the m23 Rebel Group Gather to Supervise Potential Recruits for the M23 Rebel Group Before Being Taken to Training Center Run By M23 Rebels, AMID Clases Beetween M23 Rebels and The Armed Force Ocratic Republic of the CONGO (FARDC), in Goma , North Kivu Province in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 30, 2025. Photo Credit: Reuters

The Rwandan-Backed Armed Group M23 Moved South As It Closed in on A Key Military Airport in Dr CONGO, with Queues of Young Men Men Volunteering to Defend a Provincial Capital On Friday.

The group captured Most of Goma, The Capital of North Kivu Province, Earlier this week and has vowed to March all the way to the capital kinshasa.

The weeks-long offensive has marked a dramaatic escalation in a region that has seen conflict involving dozens of armed groups claim the lives of an estimated Six Million People or three Decades.

Rwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but is accused of seeking to profit from the region’s reserves of minirals of minirals used in global Electronics.

The crisis has rattled the Continent and International observers, with a southern African regional bloc whole holding an emergency summit in zimbabwe’s capital harare on Friday.

M23 Fighters are now moving south, with local sources telling afp on thuresday that fighting was concentrated some 30 km from the city of kavumu.

The city has a strategic Military Airfield and is where the congolese army has laid down its defenders.

The united nations warned there was “Credible reports that M23 is moving rapidly towards the city of bukavu”.

Call for volunteers

In Bukavu – Home to two Million, and the second biggest city in Eastern Dr Congo after Goma – An AFP Reporter Witnessed Long Lines of Volunteers Queueing to Join A Condole Y.

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Scores of Young Men Carried Out Drills on the Red Earth Inseide A Stadium, A Day after the Provincial Interior Minister Called On People to Engine to Fight Back Against The M23.

The Military has yet to comment on M23’s Latest Advances but President Felix TshiseKedi said earlier this week that a “vigorous” Military Response was Under Way.

Information about the fast-moving offensive has remained unclear, but so far m23 fighters have met with limited resistance from the ILL-Equipped and PORLY PAID CONGOLESE FORCES.

In Goma, Residents Emerged to Count the dead and search for food, as hospitals struggled to copy with the wounded.

“We do not want to live under the thumb of these people,” One person, who asked not to be named, Told AFP.

The United Nations, United States, European Union, China, Britain, France and Mediator Angola Have All Called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces.

Britain said chursday it was considering reviewing aid to rwanda.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has Strongly Rejected Accusations that Kigali is supporting the Armed Group, Saying: “M23 are not rwandans – they are congresse.”

On Friday, the 16-nation southern African development communication (SADC) will hold an extraordinary meeting on the crisis.

While kagame will not attend – a government specksperson telling afp that rwanda was “not a member of sadc” – TshiseKedi will be present, according to the Congressolese presidency.

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The Meeting Follows SOARING TENSions Between Kagame and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after the Deaths of 13 South African Soldiers in DRC’s East.

The Soldiers were part of the Sadc Mission in DRC, which deployed to the East of the Country in 2023 and is made up of Around 2,900 TROOPS from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.

‘All the way to kinshasa’

The M23 and Rwandan TROOPS ENTERED GOMA on Sunday. DURING DAYS of Intense Classhes that Killed More Than 100 People, The Group Seized Control over Much of the City as Many CONGOLESE SOLDIERES SOLDICES

“We are in goma and we will not leave,” Corneille nangaa, head of a coalition of groups including the m23, said on Thursday.

“We will continue the March of Liberation all the way to kinshasa.”

The offensive has heightened an alredy direction humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, the unless.

The DRC has accused rwanda of waging an offensive to profit from the region’s mineral wealth.

A report by un experts in July supported the claims, finding that Rwanda has Thousands of TROOPS in Eastern DRC – And Holds “De Facto Control” Over the M23.

Rwanda has denied the accusations.