by Reuters
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -Rwandan-backed M23 rebels laying siege to eastern Congo’s largest city Goma ordered defending government forces late on Sunday to disarm and surrender, saying they were preparing to enter and take control.
The M23 rebels have made lightning advances this month in Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich, conflict-riven eastern borderlands and launched an assault on Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier this week.
By Sunday evening, M23 fighters had pushed past Munigi, an outlying neighbourhood around 9 km (5 miles) from the city centre, three sources told Reuters.
The rapidly deepening conflict is aggravating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and has raised fears the fighting could spill over into a broader regional war.
Willy Ngoma, a spokesman for M23, told Reuters the rebels were planning to seize Goma at 3:00 am (0100 GMT).
“We gave the (Congolese forces) a 48-hour ultimatum to lay down their arms. The ultimatum has already passed, so we say that they can deposit their military equipment at (U.N. mission) MONUSCO,” he said.
With the rebels appearing poised to seize Goma, the United Nations Security Council met earlier on Sunday to discuss the crisis, in which three U.N. peacekeepers – a Uruguayan and two South Africans – have been killed in the last two days.
The United States, France and Britain on Sunday condemned what they said was Rwanda’s backing of the rebel advance. Kigali has long denied supporting M23.
Rwanda’s U.N. Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo said his country regretted the deteriorating situation in eastern Congo. However, “the current crisis could have been averted had (Congo’s) government demonstrated a genuine commitment to peace,” he added.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the U.N., Frank Phiri, Sonia Rolley and Philbert Girinema;Writing by Portia Crowe and Joe Bavier; Editing by Bate Felix, Giles Elgood, Helen Popper and Richard Chang)
