M23 rebels enter centre of DRC's Goma after claiming capture of city

M23 rebels entered the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) eastern city of Goma on Monday, two witnesses said, hours after they claimed to have seized the city, despite the UN Security Council demanding an end to the offensive.

It wasn't immediately clear if the Rwanda-backed rebel alliance had captured the whole of the lakeside city. At the airport, elements of the army and UN peacekeepers remained, residents, a local official and a UN source said.

The rebels' recent advance has forced thousands in DRC's mineral-rich east from their homes and triggered fears that a decades-old simmering conflict risks reigniting a broader regional war.

“There is confusion in the city. Near the airport we see soldiers. I have not seen the M23 yet,” one resident told Reuters. “There are also some cases of looting of stores.”

Residents said gunfire could be heard near the airport, city centre and near the border with Rwanda.

Tryphon Kin-Kiey Mulumba, chair of the Air Transport Authority, said the army remained in control of the airport.

Unverified videos shared on social media showed residents looting merchandise outside the airport customs warehouse and columns of heavily armed men, believed to be M23 fighters, walking through the northern suburbs of the city.

It was not immediately possible to determine who was responsible for the shooting but one resident said they were likely to be warning shots, not fighting.

The rebels had ordered government soldiers to surrender by 3am on Monday (1am GMT) and 100 DRC soldiers had handed their weapons in to Uruguayan troops in the UN peacekeeping mission Monusco, Uruguay's military said.

Monusco staff and their families were evacuating across the border to Rwanda on Monday morning, where 10 buses were waiting to pick them up.

Kenya's President William Ruto, chair of the East African Community bloc, will hold an emergency meeting for heads of state on the situation, said Korir Sing'Oei, principal secretary at Kenya's foreign ministry.

The eastern borderlands of DRC, a country about the size of Western Europe, remain a tinderbox of rebel zones and militia fiefdoms in the wake of two successive regional wars stemming from Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 — the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements — says it exists to protect DRC's ethnic Tutsi population.

The UN Security Council held crisis talks on Sunday about the conflict, which has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

UN experts say Rwanda has deployed 3,000-4,000 troops and provided firepower, including missiles and snipers, to support the M23 in fighting in DRC.

The US, France and UK on Sunday condemned what they said was Rwanda's backing of the rebel advance.

Kigali dismissed statements that “did not provide any solutions” and blamed Kinshasa for triggering the recent escalation.

“The fighting close to the Rwandan border continues to present a serious threat to Rwanda's security and territorial integrity, and necessitates Rwanda's sustained defensive posture,” Rwanda's foreign ministry said.