(Reuters) -U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that Congo’s M23 conflict risks spiralling into a broader regional war as Congolese troops battle a rebel advance near the largest eastern city and tens of thousands more people flee.
Fighting has flared more fiercely in Congo’s mineral-rich east since the start of the year as the Tutsi-led M23 group seized control of more territory than ever before.
On Friday, the rebel Congo River Alliance (AFC), which includes M23, said they planned to take Goma, the provincial capital and home to over 1 million people.
Congo and the U.N. accuse neighbouring Rwanda of fuelling the three-year insurgency with its own troops and weapons. Rwanda denies this.
“This offensive has a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.
The Secretary-General “calls on all actors to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to put an end to all forms of support to armed groups,” Dujarric added.
The number of people displaced by the fighting this year has doubled to 400,000 since last week, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday, warning that hospitals were nearing capacity with injured civilians.
FIGHTING NEARS GOMA
After seizing the town of Minova on Tuesday, the rebels pushed on, moving into the town of Sake, around 20 km (12 miles) from Goma.
On Thursday, the Congolese government said the army had repelled the advance on Sake in a counter-offensive.
“The military authorities assure that all measures are being taken to ensure that Goma and its surroundings are secured and protected,” the communications ministry said.
However, the U.N. statement condemned “the recent seizure of Sake, which increases the threat to the town of Goma.”
The situation in Sake was not clear on Friday morning. Local sources and a representative of an international NGO, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fighting was ongoing in the area.
Heavy bombardments have forced families from at least nine displacement sites on the periphery of Goma to flee into the city to seek shelter, UNHCR said. “Many spent last night sleeping on the streets and in green spaces across the city,” spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said at a briefing in Geneva.
The M23 briefly managed to take over Goma during a previous rebellion in 2012, prompting international donors to cut aid to Rwanda. Even then, the rebels did not hold as much ground as they do now.
(Additional reporting by Matthias Williams and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Alex Richardson and Andrew Cawthorne)
