GOMA, Congo (news agencies) — Panic swept through eastern Congo’s second largest city on Saturday as residents fled by the thousands, scrambling to escape the looming advance of Rwanda-backed rebels. Amid chaos and looting, Bukavu braced for what comes next.
A day after M23 fighters entered the outskirts of Bukavu — a city of about 1.3 million people that lies 63 miles (101 kilometers) south of rebel-held Goma — some streets were flooded by residents attempting to leave and looters filling flour sacks with what they could find.
Most people waited in their home, shocked by what had filled vacuum left by Congolese soldiers who had abandoned their posts.
“They set fire to the ammunition they were unable to take with them,” said Alain Iragi, among the residents who fled in search of safety on Saturday.
Reports and social media videos showed the region’s factories pillaged and prisons emptied while electricity remained on and communication lines open.
“It’s a disgrace. Some citizens have fallen victim to stray bullets. Even some soldiers still present in the city are involved en masse in these cases of looting,” a 25-year-old resident of a neighborhood being looted told media.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes M23, blamed Congolese troops and their allies from local militia and neighboring Burundi for the disorder in Bukavu.
“We call on the population to remain in control of their city and not give in to panic,” Lawrence Kanyuka, the alliance’s spokesperson, said in a statement on Saturday.
M23, a militia backed by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east.
Congolese authorities and international observers have accused it of sexual violence, forced conscription and summary executions. M23’s southward expansion encompasses more territory than rebels had previously seized and poses an unprecedented challenge to the central government in Kinshasa.
The rebellion underway has killed at least 2,000 people in eastern Congo and stranded hundreds of thousands of displaced. At least 350,000 internally displaced people are without shelter, the U.N. and Congolese authorities have said.
The rebels on Friday also claimed to have seized a second airport in the region, in the town of Kavumu outside Bukavu.
The news agencies could not confirm who was in control of the strategically important airport, which Congolese forces have used to resupply troops and humanitarian groups to import aid. The Congo River Alliance claimed on Saturday that M23 had taken control the airport to prevent Congolese forces from launch airstrikes against civilians.
Government officials and local civil society leaders did not immediately comment, though Congo’s Communications Ministry said the rebels had violated ceasefire agreements and attacked Congolese troops working to avoid urban warfare and violence in Bukavu.
The reports of looting and disorder come a day after residents told news agencies that soldiers in Kavumu — the airport town north of Bukavu — had abandoned their positions to head toward the city. The chain of events mirror what transpired last month in the lead-up to the M23’s capture of Goma. Congo’s military, despite its size and funding, has long been hindered by shortcomings in training and coordination and recurring reports of corruption.
International leaders are expected to discuss the conflict at the African Union summit in Ethiopia this weekend as Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi continues to plead the international community to intervene to contain the rebels from advancing. However, little progress has been made since the government dismissed a ceasefire that M23 declared last wee unilaterally as false.
“Regional escalation must be avoided at all costs,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Addis Ababa. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of (Congo) must be respected.”
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