GOMA, Congo — (AP) — Congo's leader called for a massive military mobilization to help fight Rwanda-backed rebels who were attempting to seize more territory in the country's east, as a crucial meeting of neighbors asked the Congolese government to talk with the rebels. Rwanda's leader also threatened to "deal" with any confrontation with South Africa regarding the conflict.
In his first public remarks since the M23 rebels advanced into eastern Congo's largest city, Goma, on Monday, President Félix Tshisekedi late Wednesday vowed "a vigorous and coordinated response" to push back the rebels while reaffirming his commitment to a peaceful resolution. "Enlist massively in the army because you are the spearhead of our country," he urged young people.
As much of Goma remained without electricity and water on Thursday, several bodies allegedly of government soldiers were lying in the streets as residents including children looked on in seeming horror.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot arrived in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, on Thursday and could visit Rwanda afterward, Congo's government press agency reported, quoting diplomatic sources.
The U.N. World Food Program reported widespread looting of food stores and warehouses in Goma.
“This is something that is going to exacerbate a dangerous cycle of violence as desperate times call for desperate measures,” the WFP's emergency coordinator in eastern Congo, Cynthia Jones, said Thursday.
The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma. They are one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo's mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits estimated to be worth $24 trillion that are critical to much of the world's technology.
After capturing much of Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for more than 6 million people displaced by the conflict in eastern Congo, the rebels were advancing toward South Kivu's provincial capital, Bukavu, causing fear and panic among residents, witnesses said Thursday.
Néné Bintou, a civil society leader, said gunshots and explosions were heard in Mukwinja, a captured town 86 miles (135 kilometers) from Bukavu.
The Congolese military has been weakened after hundreds of foreign military contractors withdrew and handed over their arms to the rebels. Residents of Goma described seeing soldiers changing into civilian clothing and dropping their guns as they crossed over the border to Rwanda or took shelter in foreign peacekeeping bases.
“The (Congolese) military bases in Bukavu have been emptied to reinforce those in Nyabibwe, Bushushu, and Nyamukubi" along the way to the capital, one youth leader said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was worried about his safety.
A summit of the regional East African bloc called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in eastern Congo and “strongly urged” Tshisekedi’s government to hold talks with the rebels. Tshisekedi was conspicuously absent from the virtual summit attended by Rwanda, also a member.
While African countries as well as the U.N. and U.S. have called for an immediate ceasefire, the risk of a regional war has increased, analysts say, exacerbated by the rebels' advance into South Kivu and diatribes between Rwandan and South African officials. Congo is a member of the southern Africa regional bloc and also that of east Africa, whose peacekeeping force it expelled last year after deeming it ineffective.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa blamed the "Rwanda Defense Force militia" for the fighting that has resulted in the deaths of 13 South African peacekeepers in eastern Congo. He also said his government will ensure the peacekeepers are "sufficiently supported during this critical mission."
His comment drew an angry response from Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who called the South African peacekeepers a “belligerent force” working alongside armed groups that target Rwanda. “If South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,” the Rwandan leader said on the social media platform X.
Analysts say the real fight in eastern Congo is for control over the Congo’s vast mineral deposits. M23 rebels appear to be preparing to occupy eastern Congo for good and have told the AP of their plans to set up an administration and return displaced people to their homes.
The chaotic situation with the M23 has its roots in ethnic conflict, stretching back decades to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsis and others were killed by Hutus and former militias. M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and others involved in the genocide. Many Hutus fled into Congo after 1994.
Unlike in 2012 when the rebels seized Congo for days, observers say their withdrawal could be more difficult now. The rebels have been emboldened by Rwanda, which feels Congo is ignoring its interests in the region and failed to meet demands of previous peace agreements, according to Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the Crisis Group, a think tank.
“Ultimately, this is a failure of African mediation (because) the warning signs were always there. Kigali was adopting very bellicose rhetoric and the Congolese government was also adopting very, very aggressive rhetoric,” Mutiga said.
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Asadu reported from Abuja. AP journalists Ruth Alonga in Goma, Jean-Yves Kamale and Christina Malkia in Kinshasa, Congo, and Mark Banchereau in Paris contributed to this report.
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