As if this world needs more bloodshed, here comes another major war knocking on the door of the crumbling international order. This week’s ferocious assault and capture of the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by rebels backed by troops from its tiny neighbour, Rwanda, marks an escalation with far reaching consequences beyond Africa. It also exposes the complacency of western governments, who many Congolese accuse of paving the way for this crisis.
The rebellion, known as the M23, has been snowballing since 2021. In recent months, M23 seized swathes of territory as it encircled Goma, a city nestled below a group of volcanoes facing the Rwandan border. This week, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for Rwanda to stop supporting M23 and to remove its troops from Congolese territory, adding that the conflict had inflicted a “devastating toll” on civilians, millions of whom need aid. In DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, angry protesters lit fires and attacked the Rwandan, French and US embassies.
