BUKAVU, Congo (AP) — Rwanda-backed rebels reached the center of east Congo’s second largest city, Bukavu, on Sunday morning and were present in most parts of the city after little resistance from government forces in an unprecedented expansion of their reach in their yearslong fighting.
Associated Press journalists witnessed scores of residents cheering on the M23 rebels in central Bukavu on Sunday morning as they walked and drove around the city center after a dayslong march from the region's major city of Goma 63 miles (101 kilometers) away, which they captured late last month. Several parts of the city, however, remained deserted with residents indoors.
The M23 rebels are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east, and are supported by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to the U.N. The fighting has displaced more than 6 million people in the region — the world's largest humanitarian crisis — at least 350,000 of whom were left homeless after the rebels' advance into Goma.
It was not clear if M23 had taken decisive control of the city of about 1.3 million people. The rebels were stationed at the South Kivu administrative office and in several other key locations in the city. There were no signs of fighting or of Congolese forces in most parts of Bukavu on Sunday.
Blaise Byamungu, 37, one of the residents still in Bukavu, said the rebels marched into the city that was “abandoned by all the authorities and without any loyalist force."
“Is the government waiting for them to take over other towns to take action? It’s cowardice,” said Byamungu.
Unlike in 2012 when M23 only seized Goma in the fighting connected to ethnic tension, analysts have said the rebels this time are eyeing political power.
Many Congolese soldiers were seen on Saturday fleeing the rebels’ advance into Bukavu alongside thousands of civilians amid widespread looting and panic.
Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi late Saturday held a security meeting in the faraway capital of Kinshasa, where officials noted that Bukavu was “briefly” invaded by M23 but remains under the control of the Congolese army and allies from local militia, the presidency said on X.
Tshisekedi has warned of the risk of a regional expansion of the conflict. Congo's forces are being supported in Bukavu by troops from Burundi and in Goma by troops from South Africa.
Burundi's president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, appeared to suggest his country will not retaliate in the fighting. In a post on X, he said that “those people who were ready to get profit of the armed attack of Rwanda to Burundi will not see this.”
The conflict was ranked high on the African Union summit's top agenda in Ethiopia on Saturday, where U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned it risked spiraling into a regional conflagration.
“The sovereignty and territorial integrity of (Congo) must be respected,” Guterres said.
Still, African leaders and the international community have been reluctant to take decisive action against M23 or Rwanda as most continue to call for a ceasefire and a dialogue between Congo and the rebels.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes M23, said it was committed to “defending the people of Bukavu” in a Saturday statement that did not acknowledge their presence in the city. “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.
The fighting in Congo has connections with a decadeslong ethnic conflict. M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia group. Rwanda says the group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which denies the charges.
