GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -The United States, France and Britain pressured Rwanda on Sunday over its support for rebels rapidly closing in on eastern Congo’s largest city, as government forces struggled to halt an offensive that has forced thousands of civilians to flee.
With fighters from the M23 rebel movement appearing poised to enter the city of Goma, the U.N. Security Council met a day early on Sunday to discuss the fighting, in which three U.N. peacekeepers have been killed in the last two days.
The rebels have advanced swiftly this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich but conflict-riven eastern borderlands, raising fears that the fighting could spill over into a regional war.
Rwanda denies accusations by the U.N. and others that it backs M23.
“M23 attacks on peacekeepers with support from the RDF must stop immediately,” James Kariuki, Britain’s deputy permanent representative to the U.N., told the council meeting, using the acronym for Rwanda’s army.
In addition to the three U.N. peacekeepers – two South Africans and a Uruguayan – seven more South African soldiers and three from Malawi serving in a separate Southern African mission were also killed this week, South African and U.N. authorities said.
Condemning “Rwanda’s and M23’s hostilities on Goma”, acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea called for a ceasefire.
“The United States will consider all the tools at its disposal in order to hold accountable those responsible for sustaining armed conflict, instability and insecurity,” she said.
France’s U.N. ambassador called for Rwanda to withdraw its troops from Congolese territory.
Rwanda regrets the deteriorating situation in eastern Congo, its U.N. Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo told the council, adding that “the current crisis could have been averted had (Congo’s) government demonstrated a genuine commitment to peace”.
Three years into their insurgency, the M23 rebels now control more Congolese territory than ever before and have vowed to seize Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and home to about 1 million people.
Gunfire and artillery fire erupted on the city’s outskirts early on Sunday, residents said.
By mid-afternoon, the rebels were approaching Goma’s airport, two government soldiers said. However, a Congolese government spokesperson told state television the army was containing the attacks.
As night fell, electricity in the city went out, several people living in Goma said.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS FEARS
Addressing the Security Council via video link, the head of the U.N. mission in Congo Bintou Keita said M23 and Rwandan forces had penetrated the outer edges of the city.
“Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed,” she said.
“In other words, we are trapped.”
Eastern Congo remains a tinder-box of rebel zones and militia fiefdoms in the wake of two successive regional wars stemming from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 – the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements – says it exists to protect Congo’s ethnic Tutsi population.
Congo’s government, however, says the rebels are proxies for Kigali’s expansionist ambitions in the region, an accusation the Rwandan government has long denied.
Congo severed all diplomatic ties with Rwanda amid this week’s rebel offensive.
Congo’s army said on Saturday Rwandan snipers were responsible for the killing of North Kivu’s military governor on the front line a day earlier.
A spokesperson for Rwanda’s government did not respond to a request for comment.
Aid agencies are concerned about the conflict’s impact on civilians, warning that the fighting will deepen what is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Civilians have fled multiple zones of fighting since the latest M23 offensive began around Goma on Jan. 23, the office of the U.N. humanitarian coordinator said in a statement.
“Several sites on the outskirts of Goma, sheltering more than 300,000 displaced people, were completely emptied in the space of a few hours,” the statement said.
The escalation in violence has forced the World Food Programme to temporarily pause emergency operations, the agency said on Sunday.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the U.N., Frank Phiri, Sonia Rolley and Philbert Girinema;Writing by Portia Crowe and Joe Bavier; Editing by Bate Felix, Giles Elgood and Helen Popper)
