At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, the United States and other members condemned Rwanda’s actions, but stopped short of calling for sanctions. Bintou Keita, the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, told the meeting that three peacekeepers had been killed trying to protect Goma and a nearby town, Saké, from M23’s advance. She also said that the rebels had closed the airspace over Goma.
“In other words, we are trapped,” she said.
As the rebels advanced on Goma, an already dire humanitarian situation was becoming even worse. Over 400,000 people have fled their homes since the start of this year, according to the U.N. refugee agency, as M23 rebels have attacked new areas of North Kivu province, where Goma is, and South Kivu. They joined 4.6 million people who were already displaced in Congo’s east.
And still, people poured into Goma, often in long columns.
Some pushed wheelbarrows with a few salvaged belongings. Some had bicycles or carried mattresses on their heads and backs. Many of them had life-threatening injuries.
-Myriam Favier, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s sub-delegation in Goma, said on Friday that the day before, more than 100 people had arrived within 24 hours at the hospital where she worked — normally the number of people who arrive in a whole month.
“They’re coming from everywhere,” she said. “They’re coming from all fronts.”
Ms. Favier described medical staff treating patients with mortar or shrapnel wounds and said that the number of minors with serious injuries had been increasing significantly. She called on those using heavy artillery to reduce their attacks, saying that so many people were arriving with head wounds and chest trauma that the hospital had run out of beds and had to put patients on mattresses in the parking lot.
