Three killed in drone attack on Goma in eastern DRC, M23 rebels say | Democratic Republic of the Congo
A spokesman for the M23 rebel group said at least three people were killed in a drone strike in Goma early Wednesday morning.
The attack took place around 04:00 in the morning in a residential area of the city, which has been under M23 occupation since January 2025.
Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesman for the Congo River Alliance rebel group, which includes M23, condemned the attack and accused the government of being behind it.
“A drone attack is currently being carried out by the terrorist Kinshasa regime against the city of Goma, well beyond the front lines.” said in x. “This act of aggression constitutes an unacceptable provocation targeting a densely populated urban area and willfully endangering thousands of innocent civilians.”
The government did not comment on the attack and no one claimed responsibility.
Images on social media show those who intervened put out the fire On the upper floor of a two-storey house with a damaged roof.
Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was the scene of deadly clashes last January when M23 rebels attacked the city to gain territory in the region. Nearly 2,000 people were killed.
Rwanda-backed M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. It says its aim is to protect the interests of Congolese Tutsis and other minorities, and to protect them against Hutu rebel groups who fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo after participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide targeting Tutsis.
M23 covers a large area in the east of the DRC and has established parallel governments in the regions it controls.
Despite the US-brokered peace agreement signed between the Congolese and Rwandan governments in December, conflicts continue in the region.
Last week, USA imposes sanctions on Rwandan army and four senior officials accused them of “supporting, training and fighting” alongside M23.
Wednesday’s drone strike signals that the dynamics in the conflict are changing, with both sides increasingly using drone warfare.
Two weeks ago, an army drone strike in Rubaya, a major M23-controlled coltan mining town, killed the group’s military spokesman, Willy Ngoma, and several other leaders.
Last week, M23 claimed responsibility for a drone strike targeting Kisangani airport in the country’s eastern Tshopo province.
