Congo’s M23 rebels finally took control of the airport of east Congo’s largest city, Goma, on Tuesday.
This development potentially cut off the main route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of displaced people, after capturing the city in an offensive that left dead bodies lying in the streets.
M23 fighters marched into Goma on Monday in the worst escalation since 2012 of a three-decade conflict rooted in the long fallout from the Rwandan genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s mineral resources.
The United Nations has heard that the rebels control the airport and are inside Goma, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a briefing, describing the situation as “tense and fluid.”
“There are real risks of breakdown of law and order in the city, given the proliferation of weapons,” he warned.
Dujarric added that U.N. peacekeepers and personnel had been forced to shelter at their bases.
Meanwhile, in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) west of Goma, protesters attacked a U.N. compound and embassies, including those of Rwanda, France and the United States, expressing anger at what they said was foreign interference. Looters ransacked the embassy of Kenya.
The U.S. State Department has ordered embassy staff to leave Congo, two sources said. One of the sources, with knowledge of the events, said they would leave on Wednesday. A third source said only non-essential staff had received the notice.
Congo and the head of U.N. peacekeeping have said Rwandan troops are present in Goma, backing up their M23 allies.
Rwanda has said it is defending itself against the threat from Congolese militias, without directly commenting on whether its troops have crossed the border.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke separately on Tuesday with the Congolese and Rwandan presidents and urged Rwanda to protect civilians, Dujarric said.
Goma is a major hub for people displaced by fighting elsewhere in eastern Congo and aid groups seeking to assist them.
The fighting has sent thousands of people streaming out of the city including some who had recently sought refuge there from M23’s offensive since the start of the year.
Just across the border in Rwanda, trucks were unloading large numbers of people fleeing Goma with their children and bundles of possessions wrapped in pieces of fabric.
Goma residents and U.N. sources said dozens of troops had surrendered, but some soldiers and pro-government militiamen were holding out.
People in several neighbourhoods reported small arms fire and some loud explosions on Tuesday morning.
By Tuesday afternoon, several diplomatic and security sources said the M23 rebels had taken full control of the airport, putting them in charge of a vital link to the outside world.
“It was through the airport that the U.N., the humanitarian groups, the peacekeepers and even the Congolese army were getting supplies in,” said Congo researcher Christoph Vogel, adding there was no viable access by road or by boat on Lake Kivu.
