DR Congo leader says troops mounting 'vigorous' response to M23

Members of the M23 armed group operate in the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 29, 2025. /CFP

President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) insisted on Wednesday his troops were mounting a "vigorous" response to Rwanda-backed fighters advancing in the country's perennially troubled east and slammed the international community's "silence and inaction."

The weeks-long march of the M23 armed group, which has captured vast swathes of eastern DRC, including most of the key city of Goma, has prompted calls for crisis talks and warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.

DRC's mineral-rich east has been wracked by decades of conflict involving scores of armed groups that can be partly traced back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

In his first remarks since the latest crisis began, Tshisekedi said late Wednesday that a "vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors is underway."

The "silence and inaction" of the international community were an "affront" in the face of an "unprecedented worsening of the security situation," he said in a televised address.

He warned the advance of Rwanda-backed fighters could lead "straight to an escalation" in the broader Great Lakes region.

It followed local sources telling AFP that Kigali-backed fighters had seized two districts in South Kivu.

The Congolese army had yet to make a statement about the M23's fresh advances.

After days of intense clashes that left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally from overflowing hospitals, calm returned to Goma as residents started venturing from their homes.

"Today we are not afraid," Goma resident Jean de Dieu told AFP by telephone from the city of 1 million people wedged between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border.