# M23 rebels enter central Bukavu as Congo warns of a wider regional crisis
By IO Digest Desk
Rwandan-backed M23 rebels entered the centre of Bukavu on 2025-02-16, marking a major escalation in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and extending their hold over a strategic provincial capital that had already been shaken by days of rapid advances.
South Kivu governor Jean-Jacques Purusi confirmed the rebels’ presence in the city, telling Reuters that Congolese troops had withdrawn to avoid urban fighting. The Congolese government also acknowledged that rebels had entered Bukavu, while saying Rwandan troops were present with them. It did not say the entire city had fallen under M23 control.
The development followed the capture of Kavumu Airport the previous day, the last major military barrier before Bukavu. The airport serves the city, which has a population of more than one million people. According to the evidence packet, the rebels faced little resistance as they moved in.
The entry into Bukavu is the latest sign that M23’s campaign is moving beyond isolated battlefield gains and into a broader attempt to control key urban and logistical nodes across the east. The group had already seized Goma in late January, and the Bukavu advance represents its most significant territorial expansion since the current rebellion began in 2022.
The humanitarian toll is already visible. The evidence packet says a World Food Programme depot was looted as civilians fled, and that many residents panicked and left the city. It also reports that scores of people cheered the rebels in the city centre, a reminder that responses to M23’s advance are not uniform even amid widespread fear and displacement.
At the same time, the violence around Bukavu has carried a clear civilian cost. A resident told Al Jazeera that he transported the bodies of two men who were shot inside their home, underscoring the disorder that accompanied the rebel entry. The city was described as chaotic on the previous day, with looting and flight before a calmer atmosphere began to settle in.
Regional and international alarm has grown in parallel. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned that a regional escalation must be avoided at all costs and called for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s territorial integrity to be preserved. A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said the entrance of M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force into Bukavu was a breach of sovereignty and called for hostilities to stop and for all Rwandan troops to withdraw from Congolese territory.
Rwanda denies backing M23, but the conflict has long been tied to accusations of Rwandan military involvement. A UN experts report cited in the evidence packet said Kigali maintained about 4,000 soldiers in the DRC last year and had de facto control of the rebel movement.
Bukavu’s fall, or even the perception that it has fallen, changes the strategic map in the east. It places another major city under pressure, adds to a displacement crisis that has already forced millions from their homes, and raises the risk that the fighting will spread further across the region.
For now, the government has stopped short of declaring that the whole city is under rebel control. But the rebels’ arrival in Bukavu marks a new stage in a war that has already outpaced diplomatic efforts to contain it.
