Congolese
rebels said on Sunday they had taken Goma, the biggest city in the east of the
mineral-rich country, after a lightning advance that has forced thousands of
people to flee and fuelled concerns of a regional war.
"We have
taken Goma and have ordered soldiers to surrender by 3:00 a.m. local time (0100
GMT)," Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes
the M23, told Reuters.
Reuters could
not independently determine whether the city was fully under rebel control.
Spokespeople for the Kinshasa government and the army did not immediately
respond to requests for comment.
The
Rwanda-backed M23
rebels have quickly gained ground this month in Democratic Republic of
Congo's conflict-riven eastern borderlands and launched an assault on Goma, the
capital of North Kivu province, earlier this week.
By Sunday
evening, M23 fighters had pushed past Munigi, an outlying neighbourhood around
9 km (5 miles) from the city centre, three sources told Reuters.
"Goma is
in our hands," Nangaa said.
The rebels
had earlier ordered defending government forces late on Sunday to disarm and
surrender, saying they were preparing to enter and take control.
Nangaa said
that following negotiations, the rebels had allowed army officers to leave Goma
by boat for Bukavu.
"We gave
the (Congolese forces) a 48-hour ultimatum to lay down their arms. The
ultimatum has already passed, so we say that they can deposit their military
equipment at (U.N. mission) MONUSCO," Willy Ngoma, a spokesman for M23,
told Reuters.
He added that
surrendering government soldiers were to assemble at one of the city's stadiums
ahead of the 3:00 a.m. deadline. A second rebel spokesman posted on X that all
boat traffic on Lake Kivu was suspended.
City
residents reported hearing scattered gunfire in different areas after
nightfall, but it was unclear who was shooting or whether fighting was
continuing.
Most of Goma,
meanwhile, was plunged into darkness due to a power cut.
With the
rebels appearing poised to seize Goma, the United Nations Security Council met
earlier on Sunday to discuss the situation, fearing the fighting could spill
over into a broader regional war and aggravate one of the world's worst
humanitarian crises.
Addressing
the council via video link, the head of the U.N. mission in Congo Bintou Keita
said M23 and supporting Rwandan forces had penetrated the outer edges of the
city.
"Roads
are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or
humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed," she
said.
"In
other words, we are trapped."
Condemnation
The United
States, France and Britain on Sunday condemned what they said was Rwanda's
backing of the rebel advance. Kigali has long denied supporting M23.
Rwanda's U.N.
Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo said his country regretted the deteriorating
situation in eastern Congo, but blamed Kinshasa.
"The
current crisis could have been averted had (Congo's) government demonstrated a
genuine commitment to peace," he added.
The eastern
borderlands of Congo, a country roughly the size of Western Europe, remain a
tinder-box of rebel zones and militia fiefdoms in the wake of two successive
regional wars stemming from Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Well-trained
and professionally armed, M23 - the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel
movements - says it exists to protect Congo's ethnic Tutsi population.
Congo's
government, however, says the rebels are proxies for Kigali's expansionist
ambitions in the region, an accusation the Rwandan government has long denied.
Congo severed
all diplomatic ties with Rwanda amid this week's rebel offensive and on
Saturday blamed Rwandan snipers for the killing of
North Kivu's military governor on the front line a day earlier. Three U.N.
peacekeepers - a Uruguayan and two South Africans - were also killed in the
last two days.
A
spokesperson for Rwanda's government did not respond to a request for comment.
Aid agencies
are concerned about the conflict's impact on civilians.
Hundreds of
thousands of civilians have fled multiple zones of fighting since the latest
M23 offensive began around Goma on Jan. 23, the office of the U.N. humanitarian
coordinator said in a statement.
The
escalation in violence has also forced the World Food Programme to temporarily
pause emergency operations, the agency said on Sunday.