The M23 rebels supported by Rwanda took Bukavu on Sunday, the second largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, “Reuters said, citing witness relations and M23 message.
The rebels reached the city center, which was the capital of the province of southern kiw, the witnesses informed. The M23 spokesman confirmed information in an interview with Reuters.
At the beginning of February, the rebels announced a suspension of weapons after they took Goma, the capital of the Congolese province of North Kiwu at the end of January. Shortly afterwards they began the offensive, occupying the Eastern DRK and approaching the next large center of this part of the country, the city of Bukavu. The rebels earned earlier that their goal is not to take the capital of another province.
The rebels with the support of Rwandan forces attacked GomaReuters
Rebels from the M23 group
The conflict in the province of northern Kiws broke out in 1994, just after the genocide in the neighboring Rwandawhere representatives of the Hutu ethnic group killed over 800,000 people, mainly from the Tutsi tribe. The Tutsi counteroffensive, headed by the current President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, put an end to the genocide and allowed them to take control of the country. Two million Hutu then escaped to DRK, exposing themselves to retaliation actions of Tutsi groups living in this country.
One of these groups is the M23 in 2012. Rebels in the past, in 2012, mastered Goma briefly, and then five years later attacked the eastern territory of the country. In 2022 they began another siege of Goma, which they won in January 2025.
The authorities in Kinshasa accuse the rebels and supporting their rwanda of the desire to control the mineral resources of eastern provinces, rich, among others in gold, diamonds, tin and koltan. M23 leaders maintain that they only mean protecting ethnic minorities against the DRK government, which accuse of fueling hatred between two ethnic groups.
Source of the main photo: Reuters