Goma, the main city in the east of the Republic of Congo, faces fighters from the anti-government armed group M23 and Rwandan soldiers.
“Goma is about to fall,” lamented the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot in the morning.
“Goma is about to fall”. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has no illusions about the fate of the large city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, faced with the surge of the anti-government armed group M23.
“France expresses its solidarity with the Democratic Republic of Congo and its territorial integrity. (…) The fighting must stop and the dialogue must resume“, urged Jean-Noël Barrot in Brussels, before a council of foreign affairs ministers of the European Union. Goma woke up in full chaos: heavy artillery fire rang out, Rwandan troops and fighters from M23 anti-government group having entered several neighborhoods.
UN staff evacuated
A sign of the chaos reigning in the city, the prison, which had around 3,000 inmates, was “totally burned“following a”mass escape“which caused”dead“, a security source told AFP, without giving an assessment at this stage. Prisoners on the run were seen by the AFP in the surrounding streets. Bus departures were organized on Monday at the Rwandan border with the eastern DRC, ready to evacuate UN personnel and their families from Goma to Kigali, Rwandan national radio and television RBA announced.
-Kenyan President William Ruto announced in a statement to reunite “in the next forty-eight hours” an extraordinary summit of the Community of East African States (EAC) in the presence of Congolese Presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan Presidents Paul Kagame.
A DRC-Rwanda mediation under the aegis of Angola failed in December due to lack of agreement on the conditions of an agreement. In the east of the DRC, rich in natural resources, conflicts have continued for more than 30 years.
