(23 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Goma, DR Congo – 23 January 2025
1. Various of health workers carrying wounded person into hospital
2. Various of health workers and patients in ward
3. Patient Neema Matondo with a bandage around her hand walking with help of a relative
4.SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Neema Matondo, wounded in M23 rebel attack:
"The bombs started at 3 a.m. in Mubambiro and Saké, when our soldiers started to flee (the town of Saké). We were also forced to flee the town. We saw people being killed by the bombs, but we were able to escape."
5. Various of health workers and patients in ward
6. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Mariam Nasibu, wounded in M23 rebel attack:
"When the M23 entered Saké after attacking with bombs, I was forced to flee with my children. When I got to the market, a bomb fell next to us. People died instantly."
7. Exterior of the Red Cross hospital
8. School children and people in street
9. Teachers chatting outside the school
10. SOUNDBITE (French) David Shamavu, teacher in Goma:
“The safety of the people has to be guaranteed, because if it’s not, I can’t keep the children (schoolchildren). We have thousands of students, and if we keep them (at school), it’s not safe. Prudence obliges us to leave the children (at home) and see how the situation develops.”
11. Army trucks with a heavy weapons passing in traffic
STORYLINE:
Panic spread in Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to the city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as they battle the national army.
Bombs were heard going off in the distant outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought in to the main hospital from nearby towns and villages.
Some people said they managed to flee an attack in Mubambiro and Saké, 25 kilometers (15 miles) west-northwest of Goma, adding they saw many people perish.
The situation in Saké remained unclear, with some residents claiming that the rebels have entered and seized the town.
Many Saké residents have joined the more than 178,000 people who have fled the M23 advance in the last two weeks.
The rebel group has been making significant advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, which is home to around 2 million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern DRC, along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
More than 7 million people have been displaced by the fighting.
Earlier this month, M23 captured the towns of Minova, Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.
M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.
As news of fighting spread, schools in Goma sent students home on Thursday morning.
“The safety of the people has to be guaranteed," said one worried teacher in Goma.
"We have thousands of students, and if we keep them (at school), it’s not safe. Prudence obliges us to leave the children (at home) and see how the situation develops,” he added.
Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago.
AP Video shot by Justin Kabumba
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