Rebels supported by Rwanda announced the capture of a key city in eastern Congo

The Rwandan-backed Risel Maritia has announced the capture of the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the group’s biggest victory and one of the most important areas in the conflict between the two countries for years.

The militia, known as M23, briefly known as Goma before, in 2012, was defeated and abandoned for almost a decade. Now it is close to the back, which aims to stay in the region for a long time and exploits real valuable minerals, according to the United Nations technology.

In this case, M23 seems to be in a strong position to keep Goma, a city built mainly by people who fled their homes in fear and will now have to live under the rule of one of the armed groups that fled.

The spokesman of M23 announced the “liberation of the city of Goma” in the post “in the death of the Congolese soldiers had to give their arms to the UN and be seen in the field before 3 AM , however, and there were scattered reports of gunfire in the city on Monday morning.

The conflict in eastern Congo – an area the size of Michigan – once called the World War of the African country. It has been happening since the 1990s, and involves a number of armed groups, of which M23 is currently prominent.

The rebels have organized and exploited the region for a long time, according to the UN and the United States, which the group is supported and directed by Congo’s much smaller neighbor Rwanda. Rwanda denies the accusation.

The insurgency in Goma, which began with an offensive in the region that it founded this month, has escalated rapidly over the past three weeks, prompting people to flee to it – and to the city.

On Sunday morning, thousands of people arrived in Goma from the northern areas of the city, some of them were able to hold pieces of cloth tied on their foreheads, others carrying children a few days old. Many had already been shot and fled from the bombs that were close to the camps. Others had left their villages, caught in the crossfire between the M23 and the Congolese armed forces.

Camps on the outskirts of Goma that were home to more than 300,000 people were completely emptied within hours, the UN said.

On Friday, the military governor of North Kivu, of which Goma Province is the capital, was seriously injured on the battlefield, according to a spokesman for the Congolese army. The circumstances of his death remained shrouded in mystery, but the spokesman said the governor, Gene Peter Cirimwami, died as he was being evacuated from Kinshasa, the capital of Congo.

On Saturday, the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Goma moved many of its staff from the city, putting them on buses to the airport with plans to fly to Entebbe, in neighboring Uganda.

In 2012, Rwanda came under intense international pressure to stop supporting M23, and as a result, the militia was defeated the following year. But it is unclear whether such pressure can be called for again, experts say. Rwanda has built its relationship with the West since then, and has become less dependent on aid.

At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, the United States and other members condemned Rwanda’s actions, but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. Bintou Keita, head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, told the meeting that three peacekeepers had been killed trying to protect Goma and the nearby town, Saké, since the development of the M23. He also said that the rebels had closed the airport in Goma.

“In other words, we’re stuck,” he said.

As the rebels advanced in Goma, the already daring situation worsened. More than 400,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of this year, according to the UN Refgeee Organization, as UN23 rebels have attacked new areas of North Kivu province, where Goma is located, and South Kivu. They joined the 4.6 million people who had already been displaced from eastern Congo.

And still, people enter Goma, often in long columns.

Some of the wheeled flower carts are made of several materials. Some had bicycles or carried mattresses on their heads and backs. Many of them had life-threatening injuries.

Myriam Favier, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Team in Goma, on Friday that the previous day, more than 100 people had arrived within 24 hours at the hospital where he arrived – Usually the number of people who arrived in the whole month.

“They come from everywhere,” she said. “They come from all walks of life.”

Ms Favier described medical staff treating patients with mud or scalding wounds and said the number of seriously injured children was increasing. He called on those who used heavy arts to reduce their attacks, saying that so many people were arriving with wounds and chests close to men that they had to put the patients on mattresses in the parking lot.

In Goma on the other side, schools were turned into centers for refugees. Families decorated what they could do so it wouldn’t go outside.

Most of the people who fled were looking for sanctuary in Goma, knowing that it is there in the view of the rebels, but there is no other way.

As the city fell into the hands of the M23, they hid where they could, many of them starving, cold or badly injured. Some sleep on the street, others in hospitals.

Solange Safi Ndakwinja was trying to take care of her three daughters, who were seriously injured by a bomb that exploded at a military checkpoint.

“My hope is that God will help us,” said Ms. Ndakwinja. “Relax, we don’t know what will happen.”

Elia Peltier reporting contributed from dakar, senegal, and Menan Walsh From Nairobi, Kenya.