What to know about the fighting in DR Congo : NPR

M23 rebels patrol the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday.

Brian Inganga/AP

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Brian Inganga/AP

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — On Monday, M23 rebels backed by Rwandan troops entered the city of Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They have now taken control of the city, and on Thursday, in their first press conference, declared that they were “here to stay.”

They raised the prospect of further expansion of territory under their control. DRC’s government has called the takeover a “declaration of war” by neighboring Rwanda.

Goma, a regional hub of over 2 million people, is on the DRC’s border with Rwanda. The city has been afflicted by the ebb and flow of violence for three decades — collateral damage in conflicts that exploded in eastern Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The capture of Goma is a dramatic culmination of over three years of conflict in North Kivu province. The M23 is now threatening to march “all the way to Kinshasa,” the DRC capital, in a conflict that could have seismic impacts across central Africa. Here is what to know.

What is the M23?

The M23 is one of dozens of armed groups active in eastern DRC, where militias have sown chaos for over three decades.

The conflict is a legacy of multistate wars that played out in Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which as many as 1 million people, mainly of the Tutsi ethnic group, were killed by Hutu extremists. Tutsi rebels led by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame put an end to the killing, and many Hutu perpetrators fled across the border into Congo.

The M23, or March 23 movement, refers to the date of an earlier peace agreement the group claims the Congolese government failed to honor. The rebel group, led by Congolese Tutsi commanders, formed in 2012 and is a successor to earlier Tutsi-led rebellions. It briefly captured Goma the same year before being driven out.

Desperately poor, but rich in minerals used in electronics and mobile phones, eastern Congo is ethnically diverse. Many militias have origins in specific local communities.

People rush to shop in downtown Goma, Congo, on Thursday, after the M23 rebels advanced into eastern Congo’s capital Goma.

Brian Inganga/AP

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Brian Inganga/AP

After years of lying dormant, the M23 relaunched its rebellion in North Kivu in late 2021, capturing territory including a key border crossing into Uganda. By January 2022, it had mostly surrounded Goma, leaving a pocket of government-controlled territory around the city.

The conflict ebbed and flowed, with the rebels pushing farther north. This month, it expanded into the neighboring province of South Kivu. It completed the encirclement of Goma and began to push inside the city.

What do the rebels want?

M23 leaders say that they are fighting to protect ethnic minorities against a DRC government they accuse of fomenting hate speech and discrimination. Another key demand is the return of Congolese Tutsi refugees, many of whom live in Uganda and Rwanda, to Congo.

The DRC government, however, considers the M23 a “puppet” of Rwandan interests. President Felix Tshisekedi has vowed to retake Goma. “We will fight and we will triumph,” he said in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening.

A Congolese miner sifts through ground rocks to separate out the cassiterite, the main ore that’s processed into tin, in the town of Nyabibwe, eastern Congo, 2012.

Marc Hofer/AP

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Marc Hofer/AP

The region, with its large reserves of wealth, offers other opportunities to the rebels. With the capture of Goma, the M23 now has access to a key border city and a critical mineral smuggling route into Rwanda. A 2024 United Nations report…