The M23 rebel group has advanced quickly toward Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, in an offensive this month. On Tuesday, the group captured the town of Minova, a key supply route just 25 miles from Goma, and in the past two weeks alone the fighting had displaced more than 178,000 people, according to the United Nations. (AP)
This latest offensive marks the most significant territorial advance M23, or the March 23rd Movement, has made since it reemerged in late 2021 after nearly a decade of inactivity. Since then, almost 2 million people have been uprooted by the ongoing fighting, exacerbating the existing humanitarian crisis in the restive region. More than a third of those displaced have made their way to Goma.
M23’s latest advance underscores its own strengths and momentum, but it also highlights the limited capacity of Congolese forces to contain the group, even with multilateral assistance. Last year, Congo requested the withdrawal of a decadeslong U.N. peacekeeping mission to the region, but due to the M23’s latest advances, that withdrawal has been paused indefinitely.
The Southern African Development Community also has forces on the ground in eastern Congo, and the East African Community sent a one-year mission to the region in late 2022. Congo has also paid some European mercenary forces for assistance and supported local militias that agreed to fight against M23.
There is also a transnational dimension to the conflict. At this point, it is widely documented that Rwanda is backing M23 with both equipment and forces on the ground, though Kigali continues to deny those reports. And the U.N. said last year that Uganda is also supporting the group. At the same time, though, Uganda and Burundi have both deployed troops to eastern Congo with permission and support from Kinsasha to fight other rebel groups that have targeted their respective territory. In fact, there are more than 100 armed groups in the region, some with overlapping interests—M23, for instance, is the primary force in a larger alliance—and some with competing interests.
Finally, there is a geopolitical dimension, since eastern Congo is a region rich in resources, including some of the critical minerals that are powering the green transition. The trade in these minerals has not only fueled the conflict, as local groups battle for access to them as sources of revenue, but also linked it indirectly to great power competition between the U.S. and China, both of which have their eyes on the reserves as well.
The various levels and extensions of the conflict in eastern Congo have not only exacerbated the fighting and humanitarian crisis, but have made it much more difficult to address both. And with the U.N. slowly ceding its role in conflict resolution, the people in eastern Congo bearing the brunt of the violence are unlikely to get a reprieve anytime soon.
