Rwanda-backed rebels advance and Congolese forces retreat from eastern Congo’s second largest city – The Associated Press
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People walk past an independence square in Bukavu, eastern Congo, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga)
An empty street in Bukavu, eastern Congo, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga)
An aerial view of the central prison were inmates fled following the arrival of M23 rebels in Bukavu, eastern Congo, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga)
A charred body lies on an empty streets in Bukavu, eastern Congo, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga)
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Panic swept through eastern Congo’s second-largest city on Saturday as residents and soldiers fled by the thousands, scrambling to escape the looming advance of Rwanda-backed rebels.
The morning after M23 fighters entered the outskirts of Bukavu — a city of about 1.3 million people that lies 63 miles (101 kilometers) south of rebel-held Goma — some streets were flooded by residents attempting to leave and looters filling flour sacks with what they could find. A pall of silence set in later in the day as residents and business owners braced for what comes next.
But on Saturday, M23 did not appear to have taken decisive control of Bukavu. The group did not announce advances like a day earlier when they took control of an airport outside the city.
A relative calm returned as gunfights stopped after Congolese troops exited the city and drove south, Bukavu resident Alexis Bisimwa said.
“We’re no longer waiting for the crackling of bullets as we were during the day,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.
Residents said they were shocked to see corpses burnt to ash lying strewn in the streets — casualties of the looters who filled the vacuum left by Congolese soldiers abandoning their posts.
“They set fire to the ammunition they were unable to take with them,” said Alain Iragi, among the residents who fled in search of safety on Saturday.
Reports and social media videos showed the region’s factories pillaged and prisons emptied while electricity remained on and communication lines open in most places.
“It’s a disgrace. Some citizens have fallen victim to stray bullets. Even some soldiers still present in the city are involved en masse in these cases of looting,” a 25-year-old resident of a neighborhood being looted told the AP.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes M23, blamed Congolese troops and their allies from local militia and neighboring Burundi for the disorder in Bukavu.
“We call on the population to remain in control of their city and not give in to panic,” Lawrence Kanyuka, the alliance’s spokesperson, said in a statement on Saturday.
Pierre Bahizi, the rebels’ new self-proclaimed governor of Bukavu, implored the city’s residents to remain calm and organize among themselves to bring a return of order.
“We must not leave power in the street,” he said Saturday.
M23, a rebel group backed by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, is the most prominent of more than 100 vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east.
Its southward expansion encompasses more territory than rebels had previously seized and poses an unprecedented challenge to the central government in Kinshasa. Taking Bukavu could risk deeper scrutiny from an international community whose attentions have been divided amid several global conflicts. French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire, an M23 withdrawal and a safe return of Congolese authorities to Bukavu.
The rebellion underway has killed nearly 3,000 people in eastern Congo and stranded hundreds of thousands of displaced. At least 350,000 internally displaced people are without shelter, the U.N. and Congolese authorities have said.
The rebels show little sign of slowing. On Friday, they claimed to have seized the airport serving Bukavu, located in a town north of the city.
The AP couldn’t confirm who was in control of the strategically important airport, which Congolese forces use to resupply troops and humanitarian groups to import aid. Congo River Alliance said on Saturday that M23 had taken control of the airport to prevent Congolese forces from launching airstrikes against civilians.
Government officials and local civil society leaders didn’t immediately comment, though Congo’s Communications Ministry said the rebels had violated ceasefire agreements and attacked Congolese troops working to avoid urban warfare and violence in Bukavu.
The reports of looting and disorder come a day after residents told the AP that soldiers in Kavumu — the airport town north of Bukavu — had abandoned their positions to head toward the city. The chain of events mirror what transpired last month in the lead-up to the M23’s capture of Goma. Congo’s military, despite its size and funding, has long been hindered by shortcomings in training and coordination and recurring reports of corruption.
The conflict was among the top agenda items at the African Union sum
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