GENEVA, January 28. /TASS/. The humanitarian situation in and around the city of Goma in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains extremely alarming, with reports of heavy shelling from small arms and mortars continuing in the area, Jens Laerke, Deputy Spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said at a briefing.
According to him, the hospitals in Goma are overcrowded and struggling to cope with the influx of the wounded. OCHA has received reports of attacks on humanitarian and medical facilities, looting of property, and militant violence. The city's power and water supplies have been disrupted, and internet access has been unavailable since January 27.
OCHA reports that hundreds of thousands of people have tried to flee the fighting since military operations escalated earlier this year. The agency added that approximately 700,000 people have already been displaced and are living in uninhabitable conditions on the outskirts of Goma.
Over the past three weeks, rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23) have launched a new offensive on the city of Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their advance units are 20 km from the settlement. Goma has no electricity, no running water, no cell phone coverage, and routes for food and basic supplies are blocked. The city is home to 2 mln people.
The M23 group was formed in 2012 by deserters from the Congolese army. The rebel units began fighting in eastern DRC in January 2021. They have captured several towns and more than 100 villages in the North Kivu province. The government accuses Rwanda of supporting the rebels.
The conflict in eastern DRC has been ongoing for many years. After the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi people in Rwanda and their defeat in the civil war, some government forces, most of them Hutus, withdrew to what was then Zaire (now the DRC). There, they clashed with the local Tutsi population. Rwanda, where the Tutsis had come to power, supported the Banyamulenge. The Congolese separatists gradually joined them.