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Fleeing the relentless advance of armed groups, families laden with their belongings spent Wednesday morning trudging toward downtown Goma. The scene reflected the ongoing turmoil in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where communities continue to grapple with displacement and insecurity.
Minova, a vital port city, has fallen to the Rwanda-supported M23 armed group, driving streams of displaced civilians to flee as the insurgents expand their grip at the expense of the Congolese army.
For some, this is not the first time they’ve been uprooted, as the decades-long conflict, now in its 30th year, continues to displace families with its unpredictable waves of violence.
Since 2021, the once-occasional breakthroughs by M23 and the retreats of the Congolese military have escalated, becoming a regular feature of the conflict’s destabilizing momentum.
“Everywhere we go, we find ourselves in an uncertain situation,” displaced person Anuarite Nabintu told AFP at the side of the road.
By seizing Minova, a port city some 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of North Kivu’s provincial capital Goma, the M23, which had already practically surrounded the city, has further tightened its grip in the area.
The largely ethnic Tutsi M23 and the Congolese army’s positions are now separated just by a narrow stretch of water.
To the southeast lies a peninsula leading to Minova and occupied by M23 fighters, with the port of Nzulo to the north.
To respond to the threat, the Congolese army announced in a press release on Wednesday the suspension of the movement of small boats on the lake in a bid to avoid enemy infiltration.
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The army also deployed heavy artillery near Nzulo and displaced persons camps nearby, according to humanitarian sources, sparking a large-scale exodus.
Early on Wednesday, the displaced people fleeing Minova joined others who had left their camps located in areas under army control for fear of further clashes.
Some found families to put them up in the city centre. Others dispersed to numerous camps surrounding Goma, where more than 100,000 people are herded together in extremely precarious humanitarian conditions.
In the Sam Sam camp, a few hundred metres from the evacuated camps and potential outbreaks of future fighting, most residents have decided to stay put — for now.
Yet their faces betrayed their concern.
“If the situation persists, even this camp’s residents will have to leave for Goma city,” worried one resident, Kadibanga Batungi.
“These people cannot accept living here with the M23 nearby. The presence of the displaced from Nzulo comforted us, but as they have just left, we shall probably all leave too,” he said.
An already crowded camp has received about 500 displaced people from Minova since violence intensified in the area, said camp secretary Aristide Sadiki Bichichi.
