A Rwanda-backed rebel group on Monday entered the Congolese city of Goma, threatening a bloody new chapter in a 30-year conflict set off by the 1994 genocide.
Residents of the city, which sits on the Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Rwanda and is a longtime international aid hub and haven for civilians, reported gunfire and heavy shelling after rebels overran thousands of Congolese troops and United Nations and African peacekeepers.
An extended battle for Goma could become an early test for the Trump administration and its willingness to intervene in a war involving one of America's closest allies in Africa.
The rebel group, known as the March 23 Movement, or M23, said early Monday that it had taken control of Goma.
Named for a failed 2009 peace treaty, M23 traces its roots to the start of the conflict in eastern Congo in the mid-1990s. It was formed in part to resist an influx of millions of mostly ethnic Hutu refugees, including members of Rwanda's ousted government and many of the perpetrators of the massacres of Rwandan Tutsi.
This story is from the January 28, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
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This story is from the January 28, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
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