Peacekeepers from the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the D. R. Congo (MONUSCO) in an Armoured personnel carrier (APC) as they patrol to protect internally displaced Congolese in their farming fields, to secure harvest.
Kinshasa, February 19 – Anxiety is rising on the streets of the D.R. Congo capital, Kinshasa, as the army puts up limited resistance against the M23 group’s advance in the east and residents question whether the country’s President Felix Tshisekedi grasps the risk it poses.
Embassies have begun using armoured vehicles for trips to the airport and sending some staff across the Congo River to Brazzaville, capital of Republic of Congo.
Three Kinshasa-based government officials told Journalists that they were making arrangements to get their families out of the country and others say they have already sent their families to Brazzaville after the rebels seized Goma, eastern Congo’s biggest city, in late January.
As talk about a possible coup spread, Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said on X that Congolese “will not accept any coup that involves the Rwandan army to destabilize the country’s institutions.”
As anxiety rises among Congolese residents, volleys of gunfire rang out in the D.R. Congo eastern border town of Uvira on Wednesday as clashes broke out among allied forces amid the advance of Rwanda-backed M 23 rebels.
Residents and officials described scenes of looting, bodies lying in the street, and government soldiers commandeering boats to flee across Lake Tanganyika. The local prison was also emptied, they said.
The M23 rebels have been moving south towards Uvira, which shares a lake border with Burundi, since they seized the provincial capital Bukavu over the weekend – the heaviest loss for Congo since the fall of the region’s largest city Goma in late January.
Since Bukavu’s fall, retreating Congolese troops have ended up fighting allied militia called the Wazalendo who do not want to withdraw.
A humanitarian source said there were bodies lying in the streets, around 30 bodies in the town’s morgue, and more than 100 people hospitalised with serious injuries as a result of the violence, though this could not be independently verified.
The chaos underscores the Congolese authorities’ weakening control in the east, where M23’s unprecedented territorial gains and capture of valuable mining areas have stoked fears of a wider war.
The local prison was cleared of inmates, including 228 soldiers who had been arrested for deserting, the security source said. It was not clear if the detainees forced their way out of the prison or had been released.
Meanwhile, fighting between rebels and the Congolese army has also flared in neighbouring North Kivu province, an army spokesperson, Mak Hazukay, said on Wednesday, adding that some soldiers had abandoned their positions in the area, creating panic.
Rwanda denies allegations from Congo and the United Nations that it supports the M23 rebels with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.
Congo rejects Rwanda’s complaints and says Rwanda has used its proxy militias to loot its minerals such as coltan, used in smartphones and computers.
