People displaced by the fighting with M23 rebels make their way to the center of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.

Congolese security forces on Tuesday tried to slow the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who say they have captured Goma after entering eastern Congo's largest city, as U.N. officials reported an unspecified number of bodies on the streets.

Hospitals are overwhelmed in Goma, while hundreds of thousands are fleeing gunfire and shelling, the officials said.

Protesters attack embassies in the capital

Dozens of demonstrators, meanwhile, attacked several foreign embassies, including those of Rwanda, France and Belgium far off in the capital, Kinshasa, demanding that they condemn Rwanda over its role in the major escalation in one of Africa’s longest conflicts driven by ethnic tensions.

The M23 rebels are one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the conflict-battered North Kivu province — which includes Goma — rich in minerals critical to much of the world’s technology.

United Nations official says reports of rapes, looting

There were reports of gender-based violence and rape committed by fighters, looting of property, including a humanitarian warehouse, and humanitarian and health facilities being hit in the city, U.N. humanitarian affairs office spokesman Jens Laerke said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

“The humanitarian situation in and around Goma remains extremely worrying, and this morning (there were) heavy small arms fire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets,” said Laerke, adding that hospitals are “struggling to manage the influx of wounded people.”

Growing anger at the international community

In the capital, Kinshasa, police fired tear gas at protesters as they looted and set fires to parts of the embassy buildings. The embassies of Kenya and Uganda were also attacked, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.

The protesters demanded that the international community pressure Rwanda over the rebel advance.

“We denounce the hypocrisy of the international community," said Timothée Tshishimbi, one of the protesters. "They must tell Rwanda to stop this adventure.”

The attacks were condemned by the respective countries. Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement on X that the National Police have restored order and reinforced the security at the embassies.

Rwanda calls on Congo's leader to hold talks with M23

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said at least five people in Rwanda have been killed and 35 others wounded in shelling from Congo. He also told the AP that while the country has “behaved well” since the rebels entered Goma, “we have been shelled by the military coalition” of the Congolese army and its allies.

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi "will have to accept talks with M23 to end the situation once and for all,” Nduhungirehe added.

While Rwanda denies that it's supporting M23 rebels, it acknowledged last year that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo, allegedly to safeguard its security. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.

The country’s goal in Congo is to protect its borders against attacks, Rwandan army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronald Rwivanga told the AP, adding that appropriate measures would be “all-encompassing,” including the use of water, air and land defense.

Goma is a regional trade and humanitarian hub that is a refuge for hundreds of thousands of the more than 6 million people displaced by eastern Congo's prolonged conflict over ethnic tensions that have resulted in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

Unclear how much of Goma the rebels control

The M23 rebels temporarily took over Goma in 2012 before being forced to pull out under international pressure, and resurfaced in late 2021 with increasing support from Rwanda, according to Congo’s government and U.N. experts. Rwanda has denied such support.

It was unclear how much of Goma is controlled by the rebels, who marched into the city early Monday to both fear and cheers among residents. It was the culmination of weeks of fighting during which the rebels captured several towns in a shocking advance.

“Since morning, we have heard bomb explosions and crackling bullets,” said Sam Luwawa, a resident of Goma. “So far we cannot say who really controls the city.”

Three South African peacekeepers were killed on Monday when the rebels launched a mortar shell toward the Goma airport which landed on the nearby South African National Defense Force, while a fourth soldier succumbed to injuries sustained in fighting days ago, the South African Department of Defense said Tuesday.

That makes 17 peacekeepers and foreign soldiers who have been killed in the fighting, according to U.N. and army officials.

Humanitarian situation in Goma is dire, UN says

The humanitarian situation in Goma “is extremely, extremely worrying, with a new threshold of violence and suffering reached today,” Bruno Lemarquis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Congo, told reporters in a video news conference on Monday. He said that hundreds of thousands of people were attempting to flee the violence.

Several shells struck the Charité Maternelle Hospital in central Goma, “killing and injuring civilians, including newborns and pregnant women,” Lemarquis said on Monday, describing active combat zones in all areas of the city.

Aid groups are reporting they are unable to reach displaced people who rely on them for food and other necessities.

“Key roads surrounding Goma are blocked, and the city’s airport can no longer be used for evacuation and humanitarian efforts. Power and water have reportedly been cut to many areas of the city,” said David Munkley, head of operations in eastern Congo for the Christian aid group World Vision.

United States and others condemn Rwanda

In addition to the U.N., several countries including the United States, United Kingdom and France have condemned Rwanda for the rebel advance. The country, however, blames Congo for the escalation, saying it failed to honor past peace agreements, necessitating Rwanda's "sustained defensive posture.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the advance by the Rwanda-backed rebels in a call with Tshisekedi on Monday during which both agreed on the importance of advancing efforts to restart peace talks between Congo and Rwanda “as soon as possible,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

Congo opposition leader says president isn't doing enough

The Congolese leader will address the nation on the conflict, authorities said, amid growing pressure to act on the escalation.

Opposition leader Martin Fayulu appeared to suggest the president wasn't doing enough to respond to the crisis. In a statement, Fayulu called for protests against Rwanda and for support for Congo from the international community, adding: “If Mr. Félix Tshisekedi persists in standing in the way, he will be held solely responsible for the decline of our nation and will have to resign.”

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Gunfire crackles in Congo's Goma, embassies attacked in capital

Protesters clash with riot police forces in front of French Embassy in Kinshasa.

Dead bodies lay in the streets, gunfire rang out and hospitals were overwhelmed in east Congo's largest city Goma where M23 rebels backed by Rwanda faced pockets of resistance on Tuesday from army and pro-government militias.

A day after the rebels marched into the lakeside city, protesters in the capital 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.

M23 fighters entered 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 abundant mineral resources.

Goma is a major hub for people displaced by fighting elsewhere in eastern Congo and aid groups seeking to assist them. Now the fighting has sent thousands of people streaming out of the city - some had recently sought refuge there from M23's offensive since the start of the year.

Democratic Republic of Congo's government and the head of U.N. peacekeeping have said Rwandan troops were present in Goma, backing up their M23 allies. Rwanda has said it is defending itself against Congolese militias.

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.

"I have heard the crackle of gunfire from midnight until now ... it is coming from near the airport," an elderly woman in Goma's northern Majengo neighbourhood, close to the airport, told Reuters by phone.

REPORTS OF RAPE AND LOOTING

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA), told a briefing in Geneva colleagues had reported "heavy small arms fire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets."

"We have reports of rapes committed by fighters, looting of property ... and humanitarian health facilities being hit," he added. Other international aid officials described hospitals overwhelmed with wounded being treated in hallways.

"The town is a powderkeg," Willy Ngumbi, a bishop in Goma, said. Explosives had hit a house where priests were staying and the maternity ward of a Catholic hospital on Monday, he said by phone. "The youth are armed and the fighting is now taking place in the town."

Francois Moreillon, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Congo, told Reuters a medicine warehouse had been looted, and he was concerned about a laboratory where dangerous germs including ebola were kept.

"Should it be hit in any way by shells which could affect the integrity of the structure, this could potentially allow germs to escape, representing a major public health issue well beyond the borders of the DRC," he said.

In Kinshasa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) away from Goma, angry crowds burned tyres, chanted anti-Rwanda slogans and attacked embassies of several countries seen as favourable to Rwanda, leading the police to fire tear gas.

"What Rwanda is doing is with the complicity of France, the U.S. and Belgium. The Congolese people are fed up. How many times do we have to die?" said protester Joseph Ngoy.

The Rwandan, French, U.S., Ugandan, Kenyan, Dutch and Belgian embassies were targeted. Videos posted online and verified by Reuters showed dozens of people looting the Kenyan embassy, while others showed looting had spread to other locations including a supermarket.

FEAR OF SPIRAL

The U.N. and global powers fear the conflict could spiral into a regional war akin to those of 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, has suggested the rebels' aim is to replace President Felix Tshisekedi and his government in the capital .

U.N. peacekeepers have been caught up in the fighting. South Africa said three of its men were killed in crossfire between government troops and rebels and a fourth had succumbed to wounds from earlier fighting, bringing the number of its fatalities in the past week to 13.

People attack the Rwanda Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in protest over the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels' advances into eastern Congo's capital Goma.

M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed insurgencies that have brought tumult to Congo since the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda 30 years ago, when Hutu extremists killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and then were toppled by the Tutsi-led forces that still dominate Rwanda.

An estimated 1 million Hutus, some of them refugees and others genocide perpetrators, poured into Congo, and Rwanda says Hutu-led militias and their government allies pose a threat to Congolese Tutsis as well as Rwanda itself.

Congo rejects Rwanda's complaints, saying Kigali has used its proxy militias to control and loot lucrative minerals such as coltan, which is used in smartphones.

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