All day Friday, the horizon resonated with artillery detonations: fighting continued between the anti-government group M23 and the Congolese army around Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In the city center, businesses are still operating, but schools remain closed. The atmosphere is “tense” and “fear is gaining ground”, judges Mamike Ramazani, a trader.
The capital of North Kivu province is now almost entirely surrounded by M23 and Rwandan army (RDF) troops, who are fighting alongside the anti-government armed group.
RDF took position on Thursday in the town of Sake, located around twenty kilometers from Goma, according to several security sources, leading to heavy artillery battles and the displacement of thousands of residents.
Reinforcements have landed on the Congolese side: the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the regional forces of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have positioned troops and artillery near the front, where Romanian agents of a private security company are also present.
The Congolese army, which has continued to retreat against the M23 since its resurgence at the end of 2021, has still not regained control of Sake after a new day of fighting on Friday.
And Sake spits out clusters of fighters with tired faces along the road coming from the front.
“Win this war”
On the aisle, patriots (“patriots” in Swahili), these pro-Kinshasa militiamen who play a central role in the fighting, are catching their breath.
“We wanted to recover the bodies of two of our comrades, but we were caught under enemy fire and as we no longer had enough ammunition, we withdrew,” regrets the commander of a militia under covered by anonymity.
A few meters further on, Congolese soldiers are retreating, led on motorcycles. But a high-ranking officer sets out to stop the fugitives and summons them to return to their post. “It’s difficult, but we will win this war. It is sure and certain! » he wants to believe.
He claims, on condition of anonymity, that a checkpoint was set up to control the movements of soldiers and civilians, and stop deserters.
Cameras are banned and journalists are prevented from approaching the fighting. Civilians, who came in large numbers to observe the development of events, were also kept at a distance.
-Massed at the side of the road, they appear indifferent to the detonations of heavy artillery which resonate and make the ground vibrate.
When an explosion occurs too close, the crowd begins to move in a brief fit of panic, before returning to contemplation.
“Traitors”
“We are not afraid of detonations,” assures Éric Nzanzu, a displaced person from Sake. “The entire population is here to see how the fighting progresses, to see if there will be any traitors and to watch the end. »
On a second front north of the city, in Nyiragongo territory, strong explosions resonated all day. Violent clashes raged from the morning.
The fighting stopped the coming and going of motorcycle taxis loaded with goods. They wait on the side of the road. A handful of civilians flee in the rain.
Shells or rockets, allegedly fired by the M23 or the Rwandan army posted in the surrounding hills, killed at least two civilians Thursday in the north of the city, according to local authorities. And more than a hundred injured people were taken to hospitals in Goma.
The belligerents use mortars and multiple rocket launchers, of questionable accuracy, in densely populated areas. Several hundred thousand displaced people are crowding into camps on the outskirts of Goma.
“Intensive bombing fell on at least nine displaced sites on the outskirts of Goma, pushing families to flee to the city in search of safety,” according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
“All this creates a lot of psychosis, because tomorrow, the bomb could fall on a neighbor’s house, or even on my house,” alarms Daniel Shemitima, a trader from Goma.
The fighting also damaged high voltage lines, depriving part of Goma of power for several days, announced the company Virunga Energies, one of the main electricity suppliers in the region.
