Bukavu in Dr. Congo falls to supported by Rwanda M23 rebels

The M23 rebels supported by Rwanda entered Bukavu, the second largest city in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, seizing the governor’s regional service.

Some people lined the streets to clap and cheer the fighters as they marched and entered the city center without resistance. This is the second city after Goma to fall to the rebels in the mineral region in the last few weeks.

The Congoan government acknowledged its fall and urged residents to stay home, “so that they are not directed by the occupation forces.”

The UN and European countries have warned that the last offensive, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people forced by their homes, can cause a wider regional war.

A Bukavu resident who wanted to remain anonymous because of his concerns about her safety, BBC told the BBC on Sunday that most people were still afraid to leave their homes.

“Yesterday, children and young people took the weapons. They shoot everywhere in all directions, they plunge them,” she said.

“This morning, the M23 came in and they were recognized by the people, very happy to see them. We do not know if it was because they were afraid or because they found that there were no authorities in the city.

“The place where I live in the bursting (shooting) can still be heard.”

On Friday, the M23 seized Bukavv’s main airport, which is about 30 km (18 miles) north of the city – and then began to slowly progress to the city, which is the capital of the province of South Kiv.

Province Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi Sadiki confirmed to Reuters news agency that the fighters were in the center of Bukavv until Sunday morning, adding that Congoan troops had withdrawn to avoid urban battles.

This left a security vacuum in the city on Saturday, playing chaotic scenes, including reporting a prisoner at the Central Prison.

The UN Food Food Program (WFP) said a warehouse of nearly 7,000 tonnes of food was looted.

The city of about two million people at the southern end of Lake Kiu Grassa Rwanda and is an important transit point for local mineral trade.

Its fall is an unprecedented expansion of the territory for the M23, as their last rebel began in late 2021 – and is a blow to the government of President Felix Tshiziekedes.

Government spokesman Patrick Muya said Rwanda violated the territorial integrity of the Congo through expansionistic ambitions and violations of human rights.

The Congoan government accuses Rwanda of chaos of chaos in the region – as well as there are troops on the spot – so it can take advantage of its natural resources, something that Kigali denies.

President Tshisekedi wants his colleague from Rwanda Paul Kagame to face sanctions on the most unrest.

But President Kagame rejected such threats – and repeatedly said that Rwanda’s main priority was her security.

He has long been angry with what he sees as a failure of the Congoan authorities to deal with the FLDR Rebel Group-based FLDR Group, which he sees as a danger to Rwanda.

The group was composed of some Hutu ethnic militia members accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when about 100 days were killed about 800,000 people, mainly by the Tutsi ethnic group.

The troops of the M23 -led M23 gathered at the place de L’Dépenance in Central Bukav on Sunday, where one of his commanders Bernard Baymung was filmed in the chat of the locals and answered their questions in Swahili.

He called on the government forces to “hide at home” to surrender – and accuse the retiring military of distribution of terror, arming the local youths who had looted.

The African Union (AC) – which this weekend held the heads of the State Meeting in Ethiopia – again called on the M23 to disarm.

“We are all very, very concerned about an open regional war,” Reuters says, quotes the Commissioner for Peace and AU security.