Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are seizing control of areas within the DRC. This will only escalate unless western governments act

As if this world needs more bloodshed, here comes another major war knocking on the door of the crumbling international order. This week’s ferocious assault and capture of the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by rebels backed by troops from its tiny neighbour, Rwanda, marks an escalation with far reaching consequences beyond Africa. It also exposes the complacency of western governments, who many Congolese accuse of paving the way for this crisis.

The rebellion, known as the M23, has been snowballing since 2021. In recent months, M23 seized swathes of territory as it encircled Goma, a city nestled below a group of volcanoes facing the Rwandan border. This week, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for Rwanda to stop supporting M23 and to remove its troops from Congolese territory, adding that the conflict had inflicted a “devastating toll” on civilians, millions of whom need aid. In DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, angry protesters lit fires and attacked the Rwandan, French and US embassies.

Dino Mahtani is an independent researcher and writer

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© Photograph: Moses Sawasawa/AP

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© Photograph: Moses Sawasawa/AP

Western resource-hunger has fuelled a vast humanitarian crisis. Donors must now press Rwanda to pull back from this war

There are bodies on the streets, hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing and overwhelmed hospitals draining fuel from ambulances to keep respirators running. The rapidly escalating conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – which has seen rocketing sexual violence, the execution of children and the displacement of 400,000 people this year alone – has just exploded with the M23 rebel  group’s seizure of Goma, in the east.

Their advance comes thanks to backing from Rwanda, despite the coyness of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. Mr Kagame suggests that M23 is defending the country’s Tutsis, victims of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, against an armed group set up by former genocidal killers. But the threat those fighters pose appears greatly exaggerated: analysts believe the real aim is to seize mineral-rich territory. There is a striking parallel with Russia’s tactics in eastern Ukraine in 2014. On Wednesday, Rwandan troops were seen heading towards Bukavu, another key city, with the M23 fighters.

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© Photograph: Moise Niyonzima/EPA

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© Photograph: Moise Niyonzima/EPA

A conflict that has raged for decades reached a flashpoint this week when rebels backed by Rwanda marched on a key Congolese city in a bid to occupy territory and exploit minerals.

© Guerchom Ndebo for The New York Times