Frightened residents say Rwanda-backed rebels are advancing on a third city in eastern Congo

M23 rebels guard outside the South Kivu province administrative office, at the centre of east Congo's second-largest city, Bukavu, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga)

DAKAR, Senegal — Rwanda-backed rebels appeared to be heading toward a third major city in eastern Congo, frightened residents said Tuesday, as international pressure rose over the M23’s expansion in the mineral-rich region that’s critical for global technology.

“We’re afraid that the enemy will advance to Butembo,” said Auguste Kombi, a civil society leader in Kitsombiro, a town on the road to the city of over 150,000 people.

He told The Associated Press that all main Congolese army positions along the road in the area were attacked Tuesday morning, and security was rapidly deteriorating.

It means the M23 are now moving both north and south of Goma, the city of over 2 million people it seized last month as about 3,000 people were killed. The rebels this week seized another provincial capital to Goma’s south, Bukavu, near Burundi.

The M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to UN experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over 1,000 miles away.

“We’re worried because we’re in danger of experiencing a situation similar to that in Goma, with the loss of human lives,” said Kambale Nyuliro, a Kitsombiro civil servant. He told the AP that Lubero town, on the way to Butembo, was surrounded on three sides by M23 fighters but still under Congolese army control.

“Since the fighting began, the enemy has only advanced,” he said.

Analysts have said the rebels are eyeing political power, unlike their brief capture of Goma, a major security and humanitarian hub, in 2012.

The rebel-appointed mayor of Goma said Tuesday they would carry out a census, in a sign of their intention to maintain control of the city. And ferry service resumed between Goma and Bukavu, the only way to travel between them for now.

Rwanda has accused Congo of enlisting ethnic Hutu fighters responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus. M23 says it’s fighting to protect Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination and wants to transform Congo from a failed state to a modern one. Analysts have called those pretexts for Rwanda’s involvement.

On Tuesday, the U.K. Foreign Office summoned the Rwandan ambassador in London and in a statement condemned the rebel gains, calling them “an unacceptable violation of (Congo’s) sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“The government of Rwanda must immediately withdraw all Rwanda Defence Force troops from Congolese territory,” the statement added.

There was no immediate comment from Rwanda.

Dozens of armed groups have long been active in eastern Congo, displacing more than 6 million people and creating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

The M23’s latest movement north keeps the rebels not far from Uganda, which on Tuesday said it sent troops into yet another eastern Congo city further to the north, Bunia. Uganda said it was meant to combat violence by armed groups. It has periodically sent troops into Congo in agreement with the government in Kinshasa.

Also Tuesday, the UN human rights chief accused the Rwanda-backed rebels of killing children and attacking hospitals and warehouses storing humanitarian aid.

Volker Turk said in a statement that his office “confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week. We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons.”

He provided no details, but UN agencies have previously accused both the rebels and Congolese government forces of recruiting children.

The UN Human Rights Council this month launched a commission that will investigate atrocities, including rapes and killings akin to “summary executions,” committed by both sides this year.

By Wilson Mcmakin