Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Goma has intensified as the military continues to hold off the M23 forces.
On Monday, rebels, which the United Nations says are backed by Rwanda, marched into Goma and declared the key city under their control, signalling a big blow to the Congolese army and a serious escalation in the years-long conflict that has killed hundreds and displaced millions in the eastern DRC.
DRC’s Rural Development Minister Muhindo Nzangi said the Congolese army controlled 80 percent of Goma, with Rwandan troops either on the city’s outskirts or back across the border.
At least 17 people were killed in Goma on Monday, and the AFP news agency reported quoting hospital sources that doctors in the city were treating 367 people wounded in the clashes.
Civil society members and NGOs working in Goma put the death toll at 25, with 375 people injured.
Hospitals are overwhelmed in east Congo’s city of Goma treating hundreds of patients with gunshot, mortar and shrapnel wounds while many dead bodies lay in the streets, UN and other aid agencies said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“There are currently hundreds of people in hospital, most admitted with gunshot wounds,” said Adelheid Marschang, WHO’s emergency response coordinator for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On Tuesday, South Africa confirmed three of its soldiers had died in the fighting on Monday after getting “caught in the crossfire”. It added that another soldier killed in the recent fighting had also died on Monday.
Fire exchanges also took place between Congolese and Rwandan troops on either side of a border crossing near Goma.
Five civilians were killed and 25 seriously wounded on the outskirts of Rwandan border town Gisenyi, Rwanda’s military told AFP on Monday. (Aljazeera)