Worldwide peacekeepers killed as preventing rages round japanese Congo’s key metropolis : NPR


UN armoured personnel carriers deploy exterior Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.
Moses Sawasawa/AP
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Moses Sawasawa/AP
GOMA, Congo — Combating with M23 rebels in japanese Congo has left at the least 13 peacekeepers and international troopers useless, United Nations and armed forces officers mentioned Saturday.
M23 has made important territorial features in latest weeks, encircling the japanese metropolis of Goma, which has round 2 million folks and is a regional hub for safety and humanitarian efforts.
The U.N. Safety Council moved up an emergency assembly on the escalating violence to Sunday morning (10 am EST). Congo requested the assembly, which had initially been scheduled for Monday.
On Saturday, Congo’s military mentioned it fended off an M23 offensive in direction of Goma with the assistance of its allied forces, together with U.N. troops and troopers from the Southern African Growth Neighborhood Mission, also called SAMIDRC.
“The Rwandan-backed M23 is clearly exploiting the presidential transition within the U.S. to advance on Goma — placing 1000’s extra civilians in danger,” Kate Hixon, advocacy director for Africa at Amnesty Worldwide US, informed the Related Press.
Congo, the USA and U.N. consultants accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which is especially made up of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese military greater than a decade in the past.
Rwanda’s authorities denies the declare, however final yr acknowledged that it has troops and missile programs in japanese Congo to safeguard its safety, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces close to the border. U.N. consultants estimate there are as much as 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
The burning wreckage of a white armored preventing automobile carrying UN markings might be seen on a highway between Goma and Sake on Saturday, the place a lot of the preventing was concentrated in latest days.

A UN armoured personnel provider burns, throughout clashes with M23 rebels exterior Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.
Moses Sawasawa/AP
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Moses Sawasawa/AP
Two South African peacekeepers had been killed Friday, whereas a Uruguayan Blue Helmet was killed Saturday, a U.N. official informed The Related Press. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk on the matter publicly.
Moreover, three Malawian peacekeepers had been killed in japanese Congo, the United Nations in Malawi mentioned Saturday.
Seven South African troopers from the SAMIDRC had been additionally killed throughout clashes with M23 over the past two days, South Africa’s division of protection mentioned in an announcement.
Uruguay’s navy in an announcement issued Saturday recognized its member killed in Congo as Rodolfo Álvarez, who was a part of the Uruguay IV Battalion. The unit, in accordance with the assertion, is working “uninterruptedly to adjust to the United Nations mandate, in addition to to ensure the evacuation of non-essential civilian and navy personnel from the town of Goma.”
“Varied measures have been taken to enhance the safety of our troops, who’re working in adversarial circumstances,” the navy mentioned. It added that 4 Uruguayan peacekeepers had been additionally injured. Three of them remained in Goma whereas a fourth one was evacuated to Uganda for therapy.
Since 2021, Congo’s authorities and allied forces, together with SAMIDRC and U.N. troops, have been preserving M23 away from Goma.
The U.N peacekeeping pressure, also called MONUSCO, entered Congo greater than twenty years in the past and has round 14,000 peacekeepers on the bottom.
South Africa’s protection minister, Angie Motshekga, was visiting the nation’s troops stationed in Congo as a part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission the day the troopers had been killed.