M23 Takes Town in DRC’s North Kivu, Threatening Goma
Refugees from nearby towns gather at Mushaki in 2007. As of February 24th, the town has fallen to M23 (Julien Harneis, Flickr).
On February 24th, the Congolese rebel group M23 captured Mushaki, a key town in their advance towards North Kivu’s regional capital of Goma. For years, the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has hosted clashes between government forces and rebel groups. M23, the most powerful of them, has made dramatic recent gains despite a November 2022 ceasefire. Congo’s government forces, the FARDC, are standing in their way. M23’s capture of Mushaki cuts off one of Goma’s key arteries, threatening further advances toward the province’s most important city.
Late last year, M23 agreed to a pullback intended to stabilize the situation and allow refugees to return to their homes. Terms included the group’s withdrawal from areas it recently captured, most notably the town of Kibumba. However, the deal fell through. Last month, DRC president Felix Tshisekedi accused M23 of not honoring the terms. “They pretend to move, they act like they are moving, but they’re not,” he said during a World Economic Forum panel. North Kivu residents have voiced similar complaints. On February 6th of this year, demonstrators in Goma were met with tear gas for protesting the ceasefire’s perceived failure.
Meanwhile, to the west of the regional capital, M23 continues to advance. The November pullback was intended to de-escalate the conflict and take pressure off of Goma, but M23 has counter-balanced its losses with gains elsewhere. The capture of Mushaki forced some of its inhabitants towards larger towns like Sake and Goma, but it’s unclear that they’ll be safe there either. “What will be the fate of the population?” asked local civic administrator Leopold Mwisha in a letter to a local publication, demanding that “Sake be protected by the Government.”
It is unclear how M23 will treat North Kivu’s civilians if this protection fails to materialize. On the 24th, rebels published a propaganda video from newly captured Mushaki in which a spokesman addressed a crowd of villagers. “M23 is in harmony with the population,” wrote a popular pro-rebel Twitter account, claiming the video showed “the importance of all Congolese living together.” According to Human Rights Watch, however, the group has “committed summary executions and forced recruitment of civilians,” including child soldiers. Regardless of M23’s behavior, the burden of war has always fallen hardest on North Kivu’s civilian inhabitants, for whom conflict has been a near-constant since 2004.