Humanitarian catastrophe looms in east DRC as rebels push south: official

The advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels into the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) South Kivu province threatens to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe in an area housing thousands of displaced people, the provincial governor says.

The Tutsi-led rebels have been inching south since they seized eastern DRC's largest city of Goma at the end of last month, gaining more ground despite mediation efforts.

About 3,000 people were killed in days of violence that preceded the capture of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, according to UN figures.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties and humanitarian operations in the city were hindered as non-essential aid workers had to be evacuated and warehouses were looted.

Provincial governor Jean-Jacques Purusi Sadiki told Reuters there had since been an influx of people fleeing Goma into South Kivu, "creating huge humanitarian needs we are trying to face".

The region was severely under-resourced, he said.

Traffic was suspended between South and North Kivu, creating shortages of goods, he said.

"Our fear is that should M23 advance to this side, it will assist to a natural humanitarian catastrophe," he said, speaking in South Kivu's capital Bukavu.

The escalation of the decade-old insurgency in east DRC has stoked fears of a broader regional war.

DRC's vast mineral reserves, concentrated in the east, also play into conflict. DRC is the world's top producer of tantalum and cobalt, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones. It is also the third global copper producer and home to significant coltan, lithium, tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold deposits.

Despite this, the DRC is the world's most aid-dependent country.

Humanitarian operations last year, 70% funded by Washington, have taken a big hit since US President Donald Trump imposed a pause on foreign aid last month.

The top UN aid official in the DRC, Bruno Lemarquis, said several partners had had to pause their projects.

"Finding alternatives will be extremely challenging," Lemarquis said in the capital Kinshasa.

The fall of Goma's airport makes it difficult to evacuate severely injured patients and bring in supplies, he said.

"Since the situation has stabilised and security in the city has improved, we need to bring back staff, which isn't something that can happen overnight," he said.

Goma's airport is shut due to operational concerns and because of airspace management, which is under DRC authority, Lemarquis said.

The fall of Goma and the M23's advance is the latest in a series of Tutsi-led rebellions that emerged in DRC's east after the official end of conflicts between 1996 and 2003 that sucked in the DRC's neighbours and killed millions.

Rwanda has been accused by the DRC, the UN and several Western countries of supporting the rebels with thousands of its own troops and weapons. It has denied this and said it is acting in self-defence.

A ceasefire declared by the rebels for humanitarian reasons at the start of February rapidly crumbled.

The DRC's government said on Wednesday its troops had been attacked several times in different areas since a joint summit of eastern and southern African blocs took place to defuse the crisis last week.