Goma hospital sees 'influx' of wounded as conflict escalates

A hospital in Goma has taken in more than 200 wounded since early January as fighting intensifies in eastern Congo, the Red Cross and local sources told AFP Monday.

In recent weeks, the Congo's restive east has seen escalating clashes between the Congolese army and the M23 Movement  — an armed group backed by Rwanda.

With the M23 closing in on Goma, the provincial capital's hospital has had to tend to more and more people hit by the fighting, according to the Red Cross.

"We have seen an influx of wounded people since the start of January," Myriam Favier, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in North Kivu province, told AFP.

"Between the 1 and 21 of December we saw 100 patients (and) between the 1 and 20 January we had 211 patients," Favier added.

On Monday the fighting reached the hills of Sake, a town approximately 20 kilometers west of Goma.

Explosions could be heard from Goma in the morning, according to AFP journalists.

Since its resurgence in late 2021, the M23 — which claims to defend ethnic Tutsis — has seized vast swathes of the Congo's mineral-rich east.

In early January the M23 seized control of Masisi, the administrative capital of Masisi territory located 80 kilometers from Goma.

'Most alarming'

The Congolese army has since been attempting to retake the city in a counteroffensive that has provoked a fresh wave of displacements.

More than 230,000 people have fled violence in eastern Congo since the start of the year, the United Nations said Friday, labeling it one of the world's "most alarming" humanitarian crises.

Humanitarian charity Doctors Without Borders on Monday said in a statement it was "reiterating" its call for "respect for health and humanitarian facilities."

The statement came after two of its workers were "slightly injured when a rocket hit the MSF garage next to the Masisi General Referral hospital [and] ... on the same day, another rocket hit a latrine near the hospital."

Several security sources told AFP the intensity of the fighting is currently at a level not seen for months, with a high number of deaths and the use of heavy artillery.

An expert’s report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council said in July that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers had been fighting alongside the M23 rebels and that Kigali had "de facto control" of the group's operations.