Kinshasa, Feb 16 (EFE). – Local authorities and civil society leaders confirmed to EFE on Sunday that after the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group took over Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, some 2,500 prisoners escaped and there was widespread looting throughout the city.
The armed group had been advancing since taking the Goma, the capital of the neighboring province, North Kivu, in late January.
On Friday, it took control of Kavumu airport, which serves Bukavu, and met minimal resistance it advanced on the city.
The fall of Bukavu on Saturday is the most significant expansion of territory under M23 control since the latest rebellion began in 2021.
Bukavu was in chaos throughout Saturday, with much looting as many residents panicked and fled.
“It’s really sad to see that all the big shops in Kadutu were looted by the rebels, but also by the community. The situation is really serious,” Jean Pierre Mizinzi, the mayor of this Bukavu district, told EFE.
“The big market and even the Kadutu town hall were completely looted by the population, who unfortunately set fire to some shops after looting them,” the mayor added.
According to him, the city is now relatively calm, and “sporadic gunfire” is still going on.
“The rebels are in town. Right now, we don’t know what to do. I am safe. It’s still risky to show yourself,” Mizinzi explained.
Prison break
The city’s main prison in the Ibanda district was set on fire on Saturday night, leading to the escape of some 2,500 prisoners.
“So far, I don’t know what caused the escape to the extent that (the prison) was set on fire. But many young men, most of them sons of military personnel, took their fathers’ weapons and created more disorder while the rebels were in the city,” the local mayor explained.
Mazinzi added that “the escape intensified the acts of looting.”
The Associated Press and Agence -Presse news agencies reported that some residents cheered the M23 rebels as they walked and drove through the city center.
According to Mizinzi, soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Republic of Congo (FARDC) withdrew from the city to avoid a bloodbath.
Bukavu’s civil society leader, Hypocrate Marume, also confirmed these events.
“There are some people who have looted houses tonight. The fire in the central prison of Bukavu aggravated the situation. Many prisoners have escaped. We heard sporadic shots. Some young people were arrested with weapons,” Marume told EFE over the phone.
Concerns about regional escalation
On Sunday morning, the DRC government condemned the presence of the Rwandan army, which is ing the M23, according to the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, , and .
UN chief António Guterres said that a “regional escalation must be avoided at all costs” and that the DRC’s “territorial integrity” must be preserved.
Meanwhile, the British Foreign Office said “The entry of the M23 and the Rwandan Defense Forces into Bukavu is a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC and a breach of the UN Charter.”
Adding that: “The UK calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of all RDF from Congolese territory, and a return to dialogue through African-led peace processes.”
The African Union, which met in Ethiopia over the weekend, also warned on Sunday against the disintegration of the DRC.
“We don’t want a balkanization of the eastern DRC,” the AU’s commissioner for peace and security, Bankole Adeoye, told reporters.
Without naming Rwanda, he added: “We call for the immediate withdrawal of the M23 and their ers from all towns and cities, including Goma airport.”
M23 advances
The M23 occupied Bukavu, a city of just over a million people, despite assurances on Feb. 3 that it did not intend to take the city.
With the fall of Bukavu, it now controls the capital of South and North Kivu, rich in minerals such as gold and coltan, essential to the technology industry and the manufacture of cell phones.
On Jan. 27, the rebels took Goma – home to some two million people and the headquarters of international NGOs and United Nations agencies – after fighting with the Congolese army.
The clashes left nearly 3,000 dead, nearly 2,900 wounded, and hundreds of thousands displaced, according to the United Nations.
The offensive by the M23 – made up mainly of Tutsis who suffered in the 1994 Rwandan genocide – has heightened tensions with neighboring Rwanda.
The Congolese government has accused Kigali of ing the M23, a fact confirmed by the UN.
Rwanda and the M23 accuse the Congolese army of collaborating with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group formed in 2000 by genocide leaders and other exiled Rwandans, which has also been confirmed by the UN.
Since 1998, the eastern DRC has been in a conflict fueled by rebel militias and the army, despite the presence of the UN peacekeeping mission (Monusco).
EFE py/mcd
