Rwandan-backed rebels have announced the capture of a major city in eastern Congo

A Rwandan-backed rebel militia has announced the capture of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma, a major victory for the group and one of a growing conflict between the two countries in many years.

The militia, known as M23, occupied Goma once, in 2012, then was defeated and lay dormant for nearly a decade. Now it has come roaring back, aiming to occupy the region for a long time and exploit the rare mineral resources, according to UN experts.

This time, M23 seems to be in a stronger position to hold Goma, a city where most of the people have left their homes in terror and have to live under the authority of one of the armed group he fled.

The spokesman of M23 announced the “liberation of the city of Goma” in an article in X, saying that the Congolese soldiers had to surrender their arms to the United Nations and gather in a square before 3 o’clock in the morning. , and there was widespread shooting in the city until Monday morning.

The war in eastern Congo—an area about the size of Michigan—was called the Great African War. It has existed since the 1990s, and has included dozens of armed groups, with the M23 currently in power.

The rebels plan to occupy and exploit the region for the long term, according to the United Nations and the United States, which say they are being financed and controlled by neighboring Rwanda. Rwanda denies the allegations.

The rebel advance on Goma, which began with an offensive in the area that began this month, has accelerated over the past three weeks, prompting people to flee to — and out of — the city.

On Sunday morning, thousands of people arrived in Goma from the northern part of the city, some carrying the few belongings they managed to grab with cloths tied around their foreheads, others carrying a baby just a few days old. Many have been displaced and have fled bombs that fell near the camp. Others have left their villages, which have been caught in the crossfire between M23 and the Congolese army.

A camp on the Goma border that housed more than 300,000 people disappeared completely within hours, the UN said.

On Friday, the military governor of North Kivu, a province with the capital Goma, was seriously injured in the field, according to a spokesman for the Congolese army. The circumstances of his death remain unclear, but a spokesman said the governor, General Peter Cirimwami, died while being transferred to Kinshasa, the Congolese capital.

On Saturday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Goma evacuated many workers from the town, putting them in a bus to the airport with the intention of leaving for Entebbe, in neighboring Uganda.

In 2012, Rwanda came under intense international pressure to stop supporting M23, and as a result the militia was defeated the following year. But it is not clear whether such pressure can be called again, experts say. Since then, Rwanda has improved its relations with Western countries, and has become less dependent on aid.

During an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, the United States and other members condemned Rwanda’s actions, but stopped short of calling for sanctions. Bintou Keita, the head of the Congolese peacekeeping mission, told the meeting that three security forces had been killed trying to protect Goma and Saké, a nearby town, from the advance. M23. He also said that the rebels have closed the airspace over Goma.

“In other words, we’re trapped,” he said.

As the rebels advanced in Goma, the humanitarian situation worsened. More than 400,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency, as new areas of North Kivu province have invaded, where Goma, and South Kivu are the M23 rebels. They are with 4.6 million people who have been displaced in eastern Congo.

Nevertheless, people poured into Goma, often in long columns.

A wheelbarrow was pushed with a few salvaged items. There was a bicycle or carrying a mattress on his head and back. Many of them were fatally wounded.

Myriam Favier, head of the international committee of the sub-delegation of the Red Cross in Goma, said on Friday that the day before, more than 100 people had arrived in the 24 hours in the hospital where he worked – usually the number of people who came. within a month.

“They come from all over the place,” he said. “They come from all over.”

Ms. Favier described medical staff treating patients with wounds or shrapnel and said the number of seriously injured minors had increased dramatically. He called on those who use heavy weapons to reduce their attacks, saying that so many people came with head injuries and chest injuries that hospitals ran out of beds and had to put the patient on a mattress in the parking lot.

Across Goma, schools have been converted into shelters for displaced people. The families kept what supplies they could and did not have to go out.

Many of the people who fled sought sanctuary in Goma, knowing it was in the eyes of the rebels, but had no other choice.

When the town fell to the M23 they hid where they could, many of them starving, cold or badly injured. Some slept on the streets, others in hospitals.

Solange Safi Ndakwinja was trying to take care of her three daughters, who were seriously injured in a bomb explosion at an army checkpoint.

“My hope is that God will help us,” said Mrs. Ndakwinja. “For the rest, we don’t know what will happen.”

Elian Peltier contributed reports from Dakar, Senegal, and Declan Walsh from Nairobi, Kenya.