“Nearly 3,000 people have been killed in Goma in recent days” reported Vivian van de Perre, Deputy Head of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in central Africa. Goma is the capital and largest city of the DRC’s North Kivu Province.
In the final week of January, 17 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers in the Congo were killed, and many more wounded, in battle with the rebel group M23 (which is backed by Rwanda), when the M23 captured Goma from DRC government’s forces. It is believed that “M23 seeks to set up an administration to govern Goma as it has in other areas under its control in the eastern DRC.”
