DAKAR, Senegal (news agencies) — Rwanda-backed rebels claimed on Monday they captured eastern Congo’s strategic city of Goma, the hub of a region containing trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that remains largely untapped.
Analysts said the M23 fighters aimed to control the city of about 2 million people and perhaps other areas in the region nearly 1,000 miles from the Congolese capital.
It marks a sharp escalation in one of Africa’s longest wars, threatening to dramatically worsen a dire humanitarian crisis.
The rebels’ offensive has sent thousands fleeing their homes, in addition to 1 million displaced who are already in Goma, and stretched hospitals to the limit, with hundreds of wounded coming in every day as civilians get caught in the crossfire.
Here is what to know about the conflict:
The M23 group is one of about 100 armed factions vying for a foothold in eastern Congo, where a decades-long conflict has raged. The group, made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis who failed to integrate into the Congolese army, led a failed insurgency against the Congolese government in 2012. It was then dormant for a decade, until its resurgence in 2022.
Between 1996 and 2003, the region was at the heart of a protracted conflict dubbed “Africa’s world war,” as armed groups fought over access to metals and rare earth minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium and gold. Up to 6 million people died.
The conflict can be traced to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, where Hutu militias killed between 500,000 and 1 million ethnic Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus and Twa, Indigenous people.
When Tutsi-led forces fought back, nearly 2 million Hutus crossed into Congo, fearing reprisals. Tensions between Hutus and Tutsis have repeatedly flared in Congo since then.
United Arab Emirates Dirham Exchange Rate
