Humanitarian staff and their families fleeing from Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: Reuters
Rwandan-backed rebels marched into east Congo’s largest city Goma yesterday and Congolese troops exchanged fire with the Rwandan military across the border, in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.
A rebel alliance led by the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 militia said it had seized the lakeside city of over two million people, a major hub for displaced people and aid groups lying on the border with Rwanda and last occupied by M23 in 2012.