A fast-moving battle around Goma raises regional alarm
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Rwandan forces to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to stop backing M23 rebels advancing on the key eastern city of Goma.
In a statement read out by spokesman Stephane Dujarric, Guterres condemned the offensive and told M23 to cease hostile actions and pull back from occupied areas. The DRC and the UN accuse Rwanda of supporting the rebels, an accusation Kigali denies.
The crisis reached the UN Security Council after Congolese officials said Rwandan troops crossed into their territory. Foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner described the move as a frontal assault and a declaration of war, and called for sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans on military and political decision-makers.
The fighting around Goma has already taken a heavy toll. The city is home to about one million people, flights from its airport were grounded, and thousands of civilians fled as gunfire and artillery echoed on the outskirts. UN staff were told to shelter rather than go to the airport.
The meeting was brought forward after three UN peacekeepers from Uruguay and South Africa were killed in eastern Congo, while seven other South African soldiers and three from Malawi serving in a separate regional mission also died this week, according to UN and South African authorities.
France and the United Kingdom also pressed Rwanda to withdraw. The broader conflict in eastern Congo remains tied to the legacy of Rwanda's 1994 genocide and to a maze of armed groups and mineral-rich territory, making every new battlefield gain potentially more dangerous than the last.
Goma matters because it is more than a front line; it is a major city where civilians, troops and aid workers are all caught in the same fast-moving crisis. The airport shutdown and evacuation reports show how quickly a regional fight can become a humanitarian one.
The DRC's call for sanctions reflects a belief that the crisis can no longer be treated as a local insurgency. With peacekeepers killed, neighbours pressured and Rwanda denying support for M23, the risk is that every diplomatic statement becomes part of a wider escalation.
The Goma fighting has the ingredients of a wider regional crisis because it combines cross-border accusations, civilian displacement and the deaths of peacekeepers. Once those three elements are in play, outside powers usually have far less room to de-escalate than they would like.
