A rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo today confirmed that its fighters had entered the eastern city of Goma and claimed it had control of the international airport there.
Colonel Vianney Kazarama, a spokesman for the M23 movement — which is believed to be backed by Rwanda — told Associated Press by telephone that the rebels are now fighting for control of the rest of the provincial capital. “We already took the airport,” he said. “We are now inside the city of Goma.”
The United Nations has said that if Goma were to fall a humanitarian catastrophe would result. The rebels are opposed by Congolese government forces backed by UN peacekeeping troops and their attack helicopters.
The commander of UN peacekeepers in the country, Lt-Gen Chandar Prakash, denied the rebels’ claim that they had taken the airport and said the attack had been repelled by his forces. Some rebels had used the cover of civilian houses to bypass the UN base there and enter the town, he said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting, which has led to fears of a resumption of the Congo war, in which some five million people died. Rwanda denies backing the rebels.
