Rwanda-backed DRC rebels in streets of Goma

Rwanda-backed DRC rebels in streets of Goma
Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo claimed they had captured the key, mineral rich eastern city of Goma, as witnesses described seeing columns of troops advancing unopposed through the streets of Goma.
M23 rebels stand at a small base in the hills of Kanyarucinya on the outskirts of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Photo: PHIL MOORE/AFP/Getty Images
By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi
11:20AM GMT 20 Nov 2012
Scores of heavily armed rebels were walking through the city unchallenged as United Nations peacekeepers watched and small groups of residents greeted them, Reuters reported.
"The town of Goma fell at 11:33 local time, despite the attack helicopters, despite the heavy weapons, the FARDC [Congo army] has let the town fall into our hands," M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said by telephone.
Congolese army commanders denied claims by rebels from the M23 movement that they had seized the city's airport, a vital lifeline for business and aid flights that stands directly opposite the United Nations headquarters.
Loud explosions shook the area around the airport, and there were early reports of looting in Goma, a city of 300,000 close to the border with Rwanda that is also sheltering tens of thousands of refugees who have fled the clashes.
"I had seen some Uruguayan UN troops and tanks on the streets earlier, patrolling with FARDC [Congo national army]," one Goma resident said by telephone early on Tuesday.
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"But apart from them the streets are empty, there is no car, no person, no motorcycle taxi. We are very afraid. If the UN won't stop the rebels, there is no-one between them and us."
Commanders from M23, or the March 23 Movement, had said on Monday that they did not intend to enter Goma, the main city in Congo's east and de facto headquarters for its massive aid effort, unless they were fired upon.
But it appears that they disregarded that promise in the early hours of Tuesday.
Now there are fears of street-to-street fighting in the city, where most people live in flimsy shelters or tin-shack houses that will be no protection from stray rounds.
An M23 rebel stands with his machine gun at a forward position in the hills of Kanyarucinya on the outskirts of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (AFP/Getty Images)
Aid workers fear they will face massive increases in civilians with war wounds, to add to the humanitarian crisis of more than 50,000 people already fleeing violence earlier this week.
There were also reports on Tuesday of fighting to Goma's west, around Mugunga, where most of those tens of thousands of people had sought safety after running from other camps.
It will be impossible for the M23, whose total strength is thought to number no more than 2,500 soldiers, to hold Goma, security analysts have said.
But there were concerns that Rwanda, which has denied international reports that claim it is funding and arming the M23, could enter the fray in an ostensible bid to "protect" is porous border with Congo.
Goma is a effectively contiguous with the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, with the two halves of the population separated only by the poorly-guarded frontier.
On Monday, Rwanda and Congo exchanged claims that each other's forces had launched cross-border mortar attacks into each others territory.
Rwanda's invasion of Congo, with support from Uganda, prompted a decade of conflict that killed as many as five million people, mostly from hunger and disease.