The Fort Worth Press - Rwanda-backed fighters advance into DR Congo after mostly seizing city

USD -
AED 3.673016
AFN 73.329549
ALL 94.500284
AMD 396.389968
ANG 1.802344
AOA 911.999754
ARS 1059.188075
AUD 1.571252
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.696871
BAM 1.865963
BBD 2.019206
BDT 121.500365
BGN 1.866397
BHD 0.37686
BIF 2961.136102
BMD 1
BND 1.341131
BOB 6.935109
BRL 5.709099
BSD 1.000062
BTN 86.840084
BWP 13.803434
BYN 3.272734
BYR 19600
BZD 2.008787
CAD 1.418455
CDF 2865.999585
CHF 0.900855
CLF 0.024713
CLP 948.350268
CNY 7.253964
CNH 7.264875
COP 4130.47
CRC 506.513889
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 105.200139
CZK 23.905995
DJF 177.719909
DKK 7.11685
DOP 62.072157
DZD 134.737996
EGP 50.604499
ERN 15
ETB 128.368689
EUR 0.95405
FJD 2.29525
FKP 0.803654
GBP 0.79236
GEL 2.825005
GGP 0.803654
GHS 15.451106
GIP 0.803654
GMD 71.479026
GNF 8647.658482
GTQ 7.715609
GYD 209.226777
HKD 7.78057
HNL 25.495518
HRK 7.225076
HTG 130.756057
HUF 383.089033
IDR 16217.5
ILS 3.55686
IMP 0.803654
INR 86.84025
IQD 1310.041168
IRR 42087.496971
ISK 139.970016
JEP 0.803654
JMD 158.012489
JOD 0.7095
JPY 151.397991
KES 129.149971
KGS 87.450272
KHR 3997.538509
KMF 468.602819
KPW 900.090061
KRW 1442.16503
KWD 0.30928
KYD 0.833377
KZT 497.393013
LAK 21726.001651
LBP 89553.640002
LKR 295.66802
LRD 199.50484
LSL 18.434076
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.906764
MAD 9.962553
MDL 18.651045
MGA 4723.583092
MKD 58.712663
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3461.151901
MOP 8.013013
MRU 39.851356
MUR 46.279824
MVR 15.415562
MWK 1734.111216
MXN 20.27445
MYR 4.434001
MZN 63.900622
NAD 18.4339
NGN 1510.550186
NIO 36.798344
NOK 11.10656
NPR 138.944516
NZD 1.742327
OMR 0.385008
PAB 1.000052
PEN 3.699488
PGK 4.022344
PHP 58.03697
PKR 279.214033
PLN 3.967206
PYG 7903.486636
QAR 3.645106
RON 4.748594
RSD 111.734007
RUB 91.49263
RWF 1413.067848
SAR 3.75065
SBD 8.432716
SCR 14.426899
SDG 601.000097
SEK 10.698685
SGD 1.341275
SHP 0.823587
SLE 22.750019
SLL 20969.505638
SOS 571.485815
SRD 35.205012
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.750698
SYP 13003.016048
SZL 18.427794
THB 33.709503
TJS 10.9004
TMT 3.5
TND 3.170298
TOP 2.342098
TRY 36.241964
TTD 6.784367
TWD 32.744052
TZS 2603.809056
UAH 41.518778
UGX 3679.834374
UYU 43.34324
UZS 12981.982455
VES 61.995974
VND 25482.5
VUV 123.663246
WST 2.837369
XAF 625.826579
XAG 0.030917
XAU 0.000345
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.763158
XOF 625.826579
XPF 113.781967
YER 248.000082
ZAR 18.410005
ZMK 9001.198376
ZMW 28.12588
ZWL 321.999592
  • BCC

    1.0300

    121.63

    +0.85%

  • RELX

    -0.8400

    51.07

    -1.64%

  • NGG

    -0.5400

    60.73

    -0.89%

  • SCS

    -0.0700

    12.35

    -0.57%

  • VOD

    -0.0700

    8.36

    -0.84%

  • RBGPF

    63.5700

    63.57

    +100%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    7.84

    +0.26%

  • RIO

    0.0700

    63.36

    +0.11%

  • CMSC

    0.0900

    23.5

    +0.38%

  • BCE

    0.1900

    23.82

    +0.8%

  • CMSD

    0.1872

    23.69

    +0.79%

  • JRI

    0.0435

    12.83

    +0.34%

  • AZN

    -0.8700

    73.58

    -1.18%

  • BP

    0.5100

    35

    +1.46%

  • GSK

    -0.3800

    36.17

    -1.05%

  • BTI

    -0.7900

    38.82

    -2.04%

Rwanda-backed fighters advance into DR Congo after mostly seizing city
Rwanda-backed fighters advance into DR Congo after mostly seizing city / Photo: © AFP

Rwanda-backed fighters advance into DR Congo after mostly seizing city

Rwanda-backed fighters advanced on a second front in their lightning offensive across eastern DR Congo on Wednesday after seizing control of most of the key city of Goma during heavy fighting with the Congolese military.

Text size:

The weeks-long advance by the M23 armed group has prompted calls from mediator Angola for urgent talks, as well rising international criticism and warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.

DR Congo has called on the world to stop the march across the vast central African country's mineral-rich east, which has been wracked by decades of conflict that can be partly traced back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Congolese army has yet to make a statement about a new advance by the M23 in South Kivu province.

After days of intense clashes, calm returned to Goma, provincial capital of North Kivu, on Wednesday as residents started venturing from their homes.

"Today we are not afraid," Goma resident Jean de Dieu told AFP by telephone from the city of one million people wedged between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border.

"There is hunger in Goma. We have to go get water from the lake and we have no medicine," another resident Kahindo Sifa said.

Despite international pressure to end the crisis, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi declined to attend talks with his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Wednesday.

Angola, which mediated talks that fell through last month before M23 launched its offensive, called for the Congolese and Rwandan leaders to meet urgently in Luanda.

M23 fighters and Rwandan troops entered Goma on Sunday, progressively seizing the city's airport and other sites of the key mineral trading hub.

On Wednesday, the fighters faced no resistance in seizing the areas of Kiniezire and Mukwidja in neighbouring South Kivu, a local source and residents said.

The latest fighting has heightened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, according to the United Nations.

Three days of clashes in Goma have left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally from the city's overflowing hospitals.

However, many more bodies are still to be recovered from the city's streets, a medic said.

- 'Cut off from world' -

While the fighting had ended in Goma, signs of its aftermath remained. Spent gun cartridges littered the streets, while buildings showed major damage from mortar blasts.

After many Congolese soldiers fled or were captured, the only forces in downtown Goma on Wednesday were M23 fighters or Rwandan soldiers, some firing guns into the air, AFP reporters said.

A long line of hundreds of Congolese soldiers and pro-Kinshasa militiamen, unarmed and wearing white headbands, were marched through the city's centre by M23 fighters, a security source said.

There was also widespread looting in the city, AFP journalists observed.

Student Merdi Kambelenge told AFP that the situation had "already stabilised" but said the lack of electricity meant "we're cut off from the world".

On the other side of the country, furious protesters in the capital Kinshasa on Tuesday attacked the embassies of various nations they accused of not stepping in to halt the chaos in the east.

After protesters burnt tyres in the streets and looted supermarkets, the authorities suspended all further protests in the capital, which remained calm on Wednesday.

The United States, which was among the nations whose embassy was targeted, ordered non-emergency staff and their family to leave the country.

DR Congo's former colonial ruler Belgium also warned its citizens against travelling to the country, while Brussels Airlines scrapped flights to Kinshasa.

- M23 advance 'will continue' -

The UN, US, China and European Union have all called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the region.

Rwanda's ambassador-at-large for the Great Lakes region Vincent Karega told AFP the M23 advance "will continue" into South Kivu.

It was even possible the fighters could push beyond the country's east -- even to Kinshasa, Karega added.

DR Congo has gold and other minerals such as cobalt, coltan, tantalum and tin used in batteries and electronics worldwide.

Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of waging the offensive to profit from the region's mineral wealth -- a claim backed by UN experts who say Kigali has thousands of troops in its neighbour and "de facto control" over the M23.

Rwanda has denied the accusations.

The Tutsi-led M23 briefly occupied Goma at the end of 2012 before being defeated by Congolese forces and the UN the following year.

burs-cld-dl/cw

K.Ibarra--TFWP