03/19/2024 DRC (International Christian Concern) – Recent reports indicate that armed rebel group M23 is nearing the city of Goma, the capital of eastern DRC’s violence-torn North Kivu Province. The terrorist group recently advanced on Goma, approaching the city in 2022 before agreeing to withdraw from Kibumba, a key nearby town, after peace talks. 

M23 briefly seized Goma in late 2012, shortly after its founding in April of that year. 

An attack on U.N. peacekeepers in Sake, just 12 miles from Goma, on Saturday wounded eight members of the peacekeeping force. In a statement, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said, “attacks against United Nations peacekeepers may constitute a war crimes [sic] under international law,” and wished the injured personnel a speedy recovery. 

The U.N. mission, known as MONUSCO, began to pull out of the country in February, according to a statement by the force. MONUSCO has worked in the country for over 13 years and before the drawdown boasted nearly 18,000 personnel, including about 14,000 armed troops. 

The first phase of withdrawal will be focused on bases in South Kivu province, to be handed over to Congolese forces before May. Two later phases will see U.N. troops leave Ituri and North Kivu province, where last week’s attack occurred. In a statement, MONUSCO said that it planned to complete the withdrawal nationwide by the end of December 2024, one year after the withdrawal was originally approved. 

The U.N. mission has become increasingly unpopular with Congolese government leaders in recent years. In December, the U.N. Security Council approved the withdrawal after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi requested a fast-tracked withdrawal some months earlier. 

The United States and many other governments have accused neighboring Rwanda of backing M23, an accusation that Rwanda denies despite significant evidence substantiating the claim. After years of dormancy, M23 began launching attacks in 2021 and has since grown to become one of the most powerful militant groups in the DRC, a country torn by tensions between what is estimated to be about 120 militant groups. 

DRC is largely made up of Christians, with about 95% of the population identifying with some branch of Christianity. Though M23 is not primarily motivated by religious animosity toward Christians, reports suggest that their attacks influence religious practice significantly and may have some root in ethnoreligious tensions dating back to the Rwandan genocide. 

Other groups in the DRC, such as the ADF, are explicitly motivated by Islamist extremism and have wrought significant damage on Christian populations and places of worship in recent years. 

The United States recently criticized Congolese government forces for their support of the FDLR, an armed ethnic group fighting in the region. “The United States has been consistent in denouncing the collaboration between elements of the Congolese armed forces and U.N.- and U.S.-sanctioned armed actors, including the FDLR,” Ambassador Robert Wood, the deputy permanent representative of the United States to the U.N., said in a statement. 

M23 has used surface-to-air missiles to fire on MONUSCO air assets. “The fact that Rwanda, a major troop contributor to U.N. peacekeeping, would take such hostile action against a U.N. mission is deeply unsettling,” Ambassador Wood said, calling it “cause for serious evaluation by the international community.” 

The United Nations Security Council recently sanctioned the leaders of fived armed rebel groups. The list of those sanctioned includes two leaders of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a notorious terrorist group guilty of continued violence against civilians, including vulnerable Christian communities in DRC. 

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