The M23 insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is intensifying once again. Some 150,000 people have been displaced [7] over the past days, adding to [8] the 1.5 million already uprooted by the fighting, which began in late 2021. The latest clashes are taking place close to Goma, a city of 2 million people and a hub for humanitarian aid operations in the east. The M23 says [9] it is not planning on seizing the city (as it last did in 2012), but its forces fired a rocket on Feb. 7 that landed near a Goma university. Soldiers from a recently deployed Southern African Development Community (SADC) intervention force appear to have entered the battlefield on the side of the Congolese army, which is also supported by local militia. Regional mediation efforts have so far failed [11]—though a protest by the Congolese national football team (targeting violence across eastern DRC) at the Africa Cup of Nations did make global headlines [12].
From The New Humanitarian [13], Feb. 9
See our last reports on the M23 insurgency [14], and SADC interventions [15] elsewhere in Africa.
See our report on M23's 2012 taking of Goma [16].
