E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSRebel soldiers attack Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rebels are allegedly backed by Rwanda and threaten troops backed by United Nations peacekeepers. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
GOMA -- Rebels widely believed to be backed by Rwanda claimed control of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Tuesday, parading through this frontier city of a million people past United Nations peacekeepers who did nothing to stop them.
Hundreds of fighters from the M23 group entered Goma after days of clashes with U.N.-backed Congolese soldiers that forced tens of thousands of residents to flee.
A senior U.N. source told Reuters that international peacekeepers had given up defending the city after the Congolese troops left.
"There is no army left in the town, not a soul... Once they were in the town what could we do? It could have been very serious for the population," he said, asking not to be named.
The rebellion has aggravated tensions between Congo and its neighbor Rwanda, which Kinshasa's government says is orchestrating the insurgency as a means of grabbing the chaotic region's mineral wealth.
Rwanda denies the assertion.
However, Congolese Information Minister Lambert Mende ruled out talks with the rebels, suggesting they were proxies of the Rwandan government.
"We will continue (resisting) until Rwanda has been pushed out of our country ... There will be absolutely no negotiations with M23," Mende said, adding that Kinshasa would talk only directly with Rwanda.
Rights group blasts Rwanda winning seat on UN Security Council
U.N. experts say Rwanda, a small but militarily capable neighbor that has intervened in Congo repeatedly over the past 18 years, is behind the M23 revolt.
Congo's mineral wealth, including diamonds, gold, copper and coltan, a metal used in mobile phones, has inflamed the conflict and little has been spent on developing a country the size of western Europe.
Goma's capture will also be an embarrassment for President Joseph Kabila, who won re-election late last year in polls that provoked widespread riots in Kinshasa and that international observers said were marred by fraud.
Oct. 14, 2010: Margot Wallstrom, the UN Representative investigating sexual crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was brought to tears by the stories she heard from women who had been ITN's Lindsey Hilsum reports.
Hague war crimes court to finds Congo warlord guilty
Congolese state television reported on Tuesday that Kabila, who has made few public comments on the rebellion in recent weeks, is travelling to Uganda, the mediator in the conflict with the eastern rebels.
In the capital Kinshasa, security forces used tear gas and fired shots in the air to disperse a few hundred youths protesting the fall of Goma in a central square. Residents in Congo's second city, Kisangani, attacked Kabila's local party headquarters in frustration.
Hundreds of M23 fighters accompanied their leader Sultani Makenga into Goma, where they were greeted by cheering crowds shouting "welcome" and "thank you."
"We've taken the town, it's under control," said Colonel Vianney Kazarama, a spokesman for the rebels. "We're very tired, we're going to greet our friends now."
Congo crisis exacerbated by heavy rains
On Monday, Kazarama had denied the rebels would take the city.
The U.N. has about 6,700 peacekeeping troops in North Kivu, including some 1,400 troops in and around Goma, and the mission had previously promised to defend the town.
On Tuesday afternoon, armored U.N. vehicles continued to circulate in the town offering help to residents, but troops did not try to block the rebels. No government troops were to be seen.
Before the rebels seized the city, streams of residents headed for the nearby border with Rwanda. More than 50,000 people who fled fighting earlier this year have abandoned refugee camps around Goma.
"With the war, we're suffering so much, I've never seen anything like this in my life," a woman who gave her name only as Aisha told Reuters, clutching her three children.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Clinton heads to Mideast on peace mission as Gaza crisis rages
- Too much democracy? Apathy triumphs in UK's latest election
- Obama's visit a sign of Myanmar's dizzying pace of change
- Key players in the Israel-Gaza cross-border conflict
- Mexican company Bimbo may be eyeing Twinkies
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Thanks, UN. (heavy on the sarcasm.)
There will always be war as long as there is greed... I have a solution. Vote for me in 2016. All I need is a super pac to fund me! I can buy the election and soon enough become as corrupt as all these people running the world. But atlast.... I would be greedy and powerful. Yeah. My point is either they buy the election or they take it. Either way. Our system in place is a who can buy or take. Im sure many will comment and say stuff. Save your breath... Not only am I right but I wont look at the comments after I post this. Have a great day!
Simple point? You made no sense what so ever!
Why do we waste our time and money the UN. It is useless.
I wonder how many people remember April 6 to mid June 1994, a period of 100 days, when up to one million Tutsis and those pro-peace Hutus living in Rwanda, were slaughtered in 100 days. Even as the whole world looked on doing nothing.
How many know would know that the former Secretary General of the United nations, Boutros Boutro Ghalie- as Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs, brokered an arms deal worth 26 million dollars, playing a leading role in the genocide in Rwanda by supplying the Hutus with weapons they would use in the horrible massacre.
Although the UN's mandate forbids intervening in the internal politics of any country unless the crime of genocide is being committed, and the UN had troops from different countries which it could have used to stop the genocide, it refused to give them permission to do so.However, French UN troops did give Hutus a safe zone to flee to.
So now 18 years later we see Rwanda possibly involved in another civil action. What will the world do this time? We know the UN isn't of much help. Having lost about 20% of its population previously and had time to raise another generation, what has it learned? Besides the world being a very cold and bitter place where one must look out for itself.
Not much justice was ever achieved for all those innocent who were slaughtered and it must stand on its own two feet.After all, it has some very serious neighbors it must exist among.I am sure most of its people simply want to live in peace. But that commodity seems rare to find in today's market and quite expensive to purchase when one does. Then extremely fragile to keep.
UNITED Nations, indeed, LOL.
UN peacekeepers aren't that great at keeping the peace but they do make nice targets for snipers. Maybe they should ditch the light blue helmets and put a red & white bulleye on them.
Give the UN troops some training and maybe they won't be sissies any more.
I can't wait for the U.S. to be more like Congo!
what is Coltan? Cobalt, coking coal,??? and the UN is slightly more effective than the league of nations but not by much
Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
Hey Paul W, go @!$%# yourself ! The Israelis have been the insitgators of terrorism, murder, ethnic cleansisng etc, from day one. Their propaganda about being "victims" is nonsense. Hamas are freedom fighters who send over rockets in retaliation to their people being treated like animals.
The real killers are the Israeli Zionist Jews. How would you react if some outsiders moved into your country, stole your land, terrorized the general population, and murdered your leaders, women, and children - all just so they could take your land away and disposses you of your dignity???
Why is the UN even there ?
There's not many places left where you can just push people out to go after things you want like precious metals and diamonds .
..."Peacekeeping forces" only work when both sides are tired of fighting. U.N. Peacekeeping forces have a hideous reputation in much of the world. In Bosnia, Dutch peacekeeping troops were supposed to encourage civilians fleeing the Serbs to come into a "safe zone" guarded by the Dutch.
...The Serbs showed up, told the Dutch to get out of the way... then took thousands of men and boys into the woods and murdered them in cold blood. So much for the "safe zone..." Can't really blame the Dutch... U.N. military HQ in the UN did not operate on weekends... You call for overwhelming air support and you are lucky if one plane shows up to drop one bomb on one truck... French patrol guarding a representative from one of the factions heading for negotiations... under U.N. "protection" Other faction took him out of the French vehicle and gunned him down. U.N. did nothing...
...In Lebanon, most "Peacekeepers" just tried to stay out of the way of PLO infiltrators headed for Israel... One unit of French Marines refused to get out of the way... they were attacked and the French shot them to pieces... Arab countries immediately demanded that said French unit be removed (for actually doing its job...)
...In one West African diamond producing country... nasty anarchy... major criminal gang chopping off arms of men, women and children trying to gain power... Country hired South African security firm... They trained, armed, and properly paid local forces to put down violence... In a short time, everything quiet...
...But many African countries complained and twisted the arm of the country's president... He voided the security contract and took in U.N. "peacekeepers..." from mostly African countries They did not prevent the arm chopping from starting up again... but they did smuggle diamonds and sexually abuse children...
...Even the best troops (Canadians, etc) are hamstrung by command arrangements, and many units are little better than armed mobs.
...The U.S. has operated under a U.N. "Mandate" (as in Gulf War I) but is wisely not into putting its troops under direct U.N. command... We'd rather share a needle with Keith Richards...
SPAM!
I was in Goma earlier this month and I took a bunch of photos readers of this article might find interesting.
Thanks