GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo Reuters - Dead bodies lay in the streets, gunfire rang out and hospitals were overwhelmed in east Congo's largest city on Tuesday, as M23 rebels backed by Rwanda faced pockets of resistance from army and pro-government militias. A day after the rebels marched into the lakeside city, protesters in the capital attacked a U. M23 fighters entered Goma on Monday in the worst escalation since of a three-decade conflict rooted in the long fallout from the Rwandan genocide and control of Congo's abundant mineral resources.
The Congolese government and the head of U. Rwanda has said it was adopting a defensive posture because of the threat posed to it by Congolese militias. Dozens of Democratic Republic of Congo troops had surrendered, but some soldiers and pro-government militiamen were holding out, residents and U. People in several neighbourhoods reported small arms fire and some loud explosions on Tuesday morning.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U. Other international aid officials described hospitals overwhelmed with wounded being treated in hallways. Explosives had hit a house where priests were staying and the maternity ward of a Catholic hospital on Monday, he said by phone. The U. Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance that includes the M23, has suggested the rebels' aim is to replace President Felix Tshisekedi and his government in the capital 1, km 1, miles away.
In Kinshasa, angry crowds burned tyres, chanted anti-Rwanda slogans and attacked diplomatic installations of several countries seen as favourable to Rwanda, leading the police to fire tear gas.
A European diplomatic source said the Rwandan, French, U. The Congolese people are fed up. How many times to we have to die? The United Nations has been caught up in the fighting with a peacekeeping force. South Africa said three of its peacekeepers were killed in a crossfire between government troops and rebels and a fourth had succumbed to wounds from earlier fighting, bringing the number of its fatalities in the past week to It said President Cyril Ramaphosa had spoken by phone to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and the two had agreed on the need for a ceasefire.
