Panic swept through eastern Congo’s second-largest city on the event date as Congolese forces withdrew south from Bukavu and residents fled the looming advance of Rwanda-backed rebels.
The AP report says the morning after M23 fighters entered the outskirts of Bukavu, streets were filled with residents trying to leave and looters stuffing flour sacks with whatever they could find. Later in the day, a relative calm settled over the city after gunfire stopped, but the sense of control had already collapsed.
Residents told the AP that Congolese troops exited the city and drove south, leaving behind a vacuum that was quickly filled by disorder. One resident said they were no longer waiting for gunfire as they had been during the day. Another described charred bodies lying on the streets after looters and abandoned soldiers left the area unstable.
The rebels did not appear to have taken decisive control of Bukavu yet, but their momentum was unmistakable. The Congo River Alliance, a rebel coalition that includes M23, said the group had taken the airport to prevent Congolese forces from launching airstrikes. The AP could not independently confirm control of the strategically important airfield.
That uncertainty matters because the airport resupplies troops and helps humanitarian groups bring in aid. Control of it would mark a major shift in the battle for eastern Congo. Even without full confirmation, the fighting around Bukavu showed how quickly the conflict had moved from an isolated front to a direct challenge to state authority in a major city.
The city’s collapse into panic also followed the pattern seen in Goma last month. The article says the rebellion had already killed nearly 3,000 people in eastern Congo and displaced hundreds of thousands, with at least 350,000 internally displaced people lacking shelter. Those numbers frame Bukavu not as a single city under threat, but as the latest node in a widening regional crisis.
International reaction was growing too. French President Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate ceasefire and a safe return of Congolese authorities. At the African Union summit, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the conflict risked spiralling into a regional conflagration. Uganda’s top military commander also issued a stark warning in another part of eastern Congo, adding to fears of wider escalation.
The AP account makes clear that the question is no longer simply whether Bukavu will fall, but what follows if it does: looting, civilian flight, and a deeper scramble over who can impose order in Congo’s mineral-rich east.
