DRC's Goma on the brink as Rwanda-backed fighters take airport

GOMA - An armed group backed by Rwandan troops took control of the airport in the besieged DR Congo city of Goma on Tuesday, a security source said, dealing a major blow to Congolese forces and putting the eastern regional capital on the brink of falling.

The main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has become a battleground since fighters from the Tutsi-led M23 armed group and Rwandan forces entered central Goma on Sunday night after a weeks-long advance through the region.

Days of intense fighting involving mortars and gunfire have left bodies in the streets in Goma, AFP footage showed, while columns of M23 fighters could be seen marching through the eastern provincial capital.

It has not been clear which parts of Goma were under the control of Congolese forces or the Rwandan-backed M23, which claimed it had taken the city on Sunday night.

But a security source told AFP that M23 fighters had taken the airport on Tuesday, adding that "more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined" to the airport base of the UN's mission in DRC.

The lightning offensive marks a major escalation in the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich east, which has been plagued by fighting between armed groups backed by regional rivals since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

It has also triggered a spiralling humanitarian crisis, with the UN warning about hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, serious food shortages, looted aid, overwhelmed hospitals and the potential spread of disease.

The streets of Goma, a city of one million which sits on the shores of Lake Kivu and on the border with Rwanda, were almost deserted on Tuesday after heavy fighting the day before.

Destin Jamaica Kela, one of around 1,200 people in Goma registered by Rwanda to have fled over the border in the last 24 hours, told AFP that "things changed very fast".

"Bombs were falling and killing other people everywhere, we saw dead bodies," the 24-year-old said.

PROTESTERS ATTACK EMBASSIES

On the other side of the country roughly the size of continental western Europe, protesters in the capital Kinshasa attacked the embassies of numerous nations.

Rwanda, France, Belgium, the United States, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa were among those targeted, with demonstrators torching tyres outside several.

At least 17 people have been killed and 367 wounded during two days of fighting, according to reports from overwhelmed hospitals.

"The humanitarian situation in and around Goma remains extremely worrying," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN humanitarian agency, OCHA.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was striving to help respond to a massive influx of wounded to Goma's "overwhelmed" hospitals, warning some patients were "lying on the floor due to lack of space".

It also warned there could be "unimaginable consequences" if samples of Ebola and other pathogens held at a local laboratory in Goma were allowed to spread amid the fighting.

The violence around Goma has forced half a million people from their homes since the start of the year, according to the UN refugee agency.

'LAY DOWN ARMS': AFRICAN UNION

With tensions rising, the UN Security Council was scheduled to meet later on Tuesday.

After a previous UN Security Council meeting on Sunday, the Congolese government expressed "dismay" at the Council's "vague" statement, which stopped short of naming Rwanda.

At an emergency meeting on Tuesday, the African Union called on the M23 to "lay down arms", without naming Rwanda.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of wanting to profit from the region's abundant minerals that include gold, coltan, copper and cobalt, calling for stronger UN action.

Rwanda has denied the claims, saying its aim is to tackle an armed group called the FDLR, primarily composed of Hutu militants formed in the wake of the Rwandan genocide.

A total of 17 peacekeepers from a southern African regional force and the UN's DRC mission have been killed in the fighting.

In a sign of increasing pressure on Kigali, Germany on Tuesday cancelled a planned meeting with Rwandan officials, slamming a "flagrant violation of international law".

The European Union on Tuesday said it was giving 60 million euros ($62 million) in emergency aid to help people fleeing the fighting.

Kenya has announced a crisis summit on Wednesday to be attended by Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.

The M23 briefly occupied Goma at the end of 2012 and was defeated by Congolese forces and the UN the following year.

The group re-emerged in late 2021 and started seizing large swathes of North Kivu province.

A ceasefire in August failed to keep the peace and Angola-mediated talks were abruptly cancelled last month.