(31 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Goma, DRC – 31 January 2025
1. Various of people walking in the streets
2. Woman selling onions
3. Various scenes of Goma’s market
4. Saddam Kambale touchign fish for sale
5. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Saddam Kambale, trader:
“For four days everything was stopped. We came back to work today because we realized that people were going to die of hunger, so we came to serve them. Unfortunately, we found that some of our products were already spoiled, but we are resuming activities, even if it’s not like before.”
6. Kambale selling fish
7. Kavira Aline walking down the street
8. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Kavira Aline, Goma resident:
“We no longer had people to protect us (when fighting broke out). I hope they (M23) have pity on us, may they bring us peace. What we are going through is not meant for children of God, we live like animals, we are suffering. We are even out of food. We can’t find food and there’s no water, no electricity. We don’t know how we’re going to eat.”
9. Various of M23 soldiers patrolling streets
10. Various of people looking on as M23 soldier speaks to a crowd gathered at the market
11. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) name not given, M23 soldier:
“There will be no more thieves, we have an army that will secure you. Young people: do not be afraid. None of you will be taken by force to integrate into the army, we are together.”
12. Various of vehicles damaged during fighting
13. Gas station damaged during fighting
14. Various of M23 soldiers walking in the street
15. Various of discarded military clothing and bullets lie in the street
STORYLINE:
Civilians in eastern Congo attempted to return to normal life Friday as the city of Goma remained cut off from water, electricity and aid.
It’s been less than a week since Rwanda-backed rebels, known as M23, claimed control over eastern Congo’s largest city, promising Thursday to allow civilians to return to normal life and to re-establish water supply.
The U.N. World Food Program reported widespread looting of food stores and warehouses in Goma, and access to aid for residents is severely compromised.
The city normally serves as a hub for distributing aid in the surrounding North Kivu province, which is home to millions of internally displaced people who have been fleeing violence for decades.
M23 are one of many armed groups vying for power in eastern Congo, and briefly took control of Goma in 2012.
They launched another offensive in 2022, and took several key towns around Goma in recent weeks, entering the city by Sunday and soon after claiming control.
Analysts say this time, they are better equipped, and it will be much harder to push them out of the area.
Hundreds of Congolese soldiers were seen Thursday being carted off in trucks to an unknown location, claiming to have joined the M23 group.
The AP spoke to two men waiting to board the trucks who identified themselves as being Congolese soldiers who had surrendered to M23 forces.
Both said they had no other choice but to join the insurgents.
In central Goma Friday, M23 soldiers patrolled freely.
One soldier assured the population that the army was there to protect them and that there would be no mandatory inscription.
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