A rebel militia known as M23 has seized the key Congolese city of Goma, threatening displaced civilians and raising fears of a broader war.
According to the United Nations and the United States, M23 is directed and supported by Rwanda; the U.N. says Rwanda has sent thousands of its troops into Congo.
Some 500,000 people fled their homes in eastern Congo as the rebels advanced on Goma, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
While the fighting in Goma has stopped for the moment, the humanitarian situation is alarming, with bodies rotting in the streets and water and electricity cut off. “The situation is catastrophic,” Abdou Rahamane Sidibé, a senior surgeon with the International Committee of the Red Cross, texted from a hospital in Goma.
The conflict has its roots in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, which spilled over into Congo, leading to decades of fighting. Like the leaders of Rwanda, M23 is mostly made up of people from the Tutsi ethnic group.
What is M23?
M23 is one of more than 100 militias roaming the mineral-rich areas of eastern Congo.
“They pose much more of a threat to Congo than any other armed group,” said Judith Verweijen, a researcher with 15 years of experience in eastern Congo who teaches at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
The group’s name refers to its claim that the Congolese government failed to honor an earlier peace agreement, signed on March 23, 2009.
The leaders of M23 claim the group is in eastern Congo to protect fellow Tutsis and other speakers of the Kinyarwanda language from persecution by the Congolese authorities.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned against widespread hate speech against Tutsis in eastern Congo, and it said last year that the risk of genocides remained high because Eastern Congo harbors hundreds of people, known as genocidaires, suspected of being involved in Rwandan genocide.
M23 was founded in 2012 and then quickly captured Goma for the first time, before it withdrew after the United States and other partners pressured Rwanda. It lay dormant throughout most of the 2010s before resuming attacks on the Congolese Army in 2021.
What is the history of Congo-Rwanda conflict?
Fighting between Congo, Rwanda and various rebel groups goes back decades and is intertwined with the conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups that led to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
1994: During the genocide, more than a million people of the Hutu ethnic group, including many genocidaires, fled Rwanda for eastern Congo, then called Zaire. The eastern part of the country was also home to many ethnic Tutsis.
1996-1997: Rwanda invaded Zaire and backed the rebellion that eventually led to the overthrow of the country’s longtime kleptocratic leader, Mobutu Sese Seko. An opposition leader, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, supported by Rwanda, was installed in power. He changed Zaire’s name to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
1998: Mr. Kabila turned on his allies, Rwanda and Uganda, and allowed Hutu militias to regroup in eastern Congo, prompting Rwanda and Uganda to invade the region. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe fought alongside Congolese troops in a five-year regional war that killed more than three million people.
2000s: Despite the signing of peace agreements and the establishment of reconciliation commissions, unrest continued in eastern Congo.
2009: The National Congress for the Defense of the People, the predecessor of M23, signed a peace agreement with the Congolese authorities on March 23.
2012: Hundreds of former Congolese rebels mutinied within the Congolese army and formed the M23 movement. They captured the eastern city of Goma shortly after but withdrew after the United States and other countries pressured Rwanda to pull its support. The group was largely defeated in 2013.
2021: M23 re-emerged after years of dormancy.
2023-2024: M23, backed by Rwanda, gained control of large parts of the North Kivu region and mining areas.
2025: M23 — backed by thousands of Rwandan troops, according to the United Nations — launched a new offensive in eastern Congo and captured Goma.
Who commands M23?
M23 is under the military command of Sultani Makenga, a Congolese rebel who fought in Rwanda in the 1990s, joined the Congolese Army in the 2000s and then defected to join M23 in 2012.
Mr. Makenga receives instructions and support from the Rwandan Army and from Rwandan intelligence services, according to United Nations experts and Congolese and Western intelligence agencies.
Rwanda has denied any direct involvement in Congo. It also claims that Congo’s reinforced military presence in the east threatens its security, and that the region has harbored members of the Hutu ethnic group who were behind the 1994 genocide.
Experts say that Rwanda, a country smaller than Massachusetts with limited natural resources, is seeking to expand its sphere of influence and plunder mineral resources in eastern Congo.
What’s the situation on the ground?
Territory: M23 now controls twice as much land as it did in 2012, according to Bintou Keita, the United Nations’ top official in Congo. As rebels have seized more territories, sexual violence has been rampant and civilian injuries have skyrocketed.
Ambition: Earlier this month, M23 opened a new front within Congo, attacking the province of South Kivu in addition to its continued campaign in North Kivu. They could eventually target Bukavu, a city even larger than Goma.
Capacity: M23 has over the past year accelerated recruitment, both voluntary and forced, including minors. Its fighters have used weapons never before seen in eastern Congo, according to U.N. experts, such as anti-tank missiles.
Rwandan troops: United Nations experts said in a report least year that up to 4,000 Rwandan troops had been deployed in North Kivu, M23’s main area of operations, surpassing the number of M23 fighters.
What is M23’s endgame?
According to the United Nations, M23 is planning for “territorial expansion and the long-term occupation and exploitation of conquered territories.”
In April, the group seized Rubaya, home to one of the world’s largest mines of coltan, a key component in the manufacturing of smartphones. M23 has issued mining permits and formed a “state-like administration” for mining production, trade and transport, according to U.N. experts, with profits of more than $800,000 a month.
The minerals are eventually routed to Rwanda, according to reports documenting the trade from M23-controlled territories to Congo’s neighbor.
In 2012, M23 pulled out of Goma after Western donors applied diplomatic pressure on Rwanda, cutting much-needed aid. This time around, the same powers have only used words to condemn the offensive.
“Rwanda might be testing the waters to see what it can get away with,” said Ms. Verweijen. “That will shape how the M23 insurgency is going to unfold from now on.”
On Thursday, Corneille Nangaa, the head of a coalition of groups that includes the M23, said at a news conference: “We’re in Goma to stay. We will continue our march toward Kinshasa.”
How has Congo responded?
Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, urged young Congolese to enlist in the army and promised a “vigorous” military response after the fall of Goma.
In an address to the Congolese nation on Wednesday, Mr. Tshisekedi said the presence “thousands of Rwandan soldiers on our soil” was leading “toward an escalation with unpredictable consequences” across East Africa.
Mr. Tshisekedi also denounced what he called the “silence” of “inaction” of foreign partners.
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