Rebel fighters eye strategic town of Walikale as government forces suffer defection amid ongoing fighting.
The M23 armed group has pushed deeper into the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich region after capturing the key cities of Goma and Bukavu – the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces, respectively – in recent weeks.
Security sources have told Al Jazeera that the Rwanda-backed rebels had entered Nyabiondo village, about 100km (62 miles) north of Goma and located on the road leading to the strategic town of Walikale in North Kivu.
“Walikale is very important for the government as it is the only place where the government has the industrial mine from which they are getting millions of tax payments,” said Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma.
In a major setback to government forces, one of the government’s allied armed groups, known as the Group Kabido, announced it had joined fighters from M23. The Group Kabido has been active in eastern DRC for decades, and fighting with the army for the last three years. Its leaders announced this weekend that it is officially joining the M23 to fight what they call the “mismanagement of the Kinshasa government”.
“This is showing the disorganisation within the DRC army, and the M23 is taking advantage of this situation on the ground,” Uaykani said, adding that a second group defected soon afterwards.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that escalating attacks have struck hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
“Between March 1 and 3, several hospitals were targeted by armed actors in an escalation of violence against medical centres and health personnel” there, OCHA said. Security in Goma is threatened by “a resurgence of criminal acts including burgling of homes, thefts and attacks”, it said on Sunday, adding that hospitals and schools had also been forced to close in other areas.
OCHA said at least four civilians were killed in fighting between M23 and rival groups in the Masisi district between February 18 and 25, and more than 100,000 people were newly displaced in Lubero to the north.
$5m reward for capture of M23 rebel leaders
Meanwhile, authorities in the DRC have offered a $5m reward for help in arresting rebel leaders, as government forces struggle to contain their advance.
“A reward of five million dollars is offered to any person who helps arrest the convicts Corneille Nangaa, Bertrand Bisimwa and Sultani Makenga,” the Ministry of Justice announced on Friday.
Nangaa is a leader in the Congo River Alliance (AFC) – a military-political coalition to which the M23 belongs. He is also a former president of the DRC’s Independent National Electoral Commission. Bisimwa and Makenga are the president and military chief of the M23, respectively.
Tried in absentia in Kinshasa, all three men were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2024.
DRC authorities are also offering a bounty of $4m for any information leading to the arrest of the three men’s “accomplices on the run” and “other sought individuals”, the statement said.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in fighting in the eastern DRC since January, with a “significant” number of civilians among the dead.
The M23 is one of the more than 200 armed groups operating in the eastern DRC and vying for control over the region’s minerals. After being dormant for more than a decade, the group in 2021 resumed fighting and seized large swathes of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda.
In recent weeks, the M23 launched a lightning offensive, capturing Goma and Bukavu. A group of UN experts and the United States accuse Rwanda of backing the M23 – allegations that Kigali denies.
