Civilians and Soldiers Flee as Congo Rebels Approach an Eastern City
GOMA, Congo — The exodus has begun.
Women with babies on their backs. Families crammed into cars with coolers and suitcases stuffed to the windows. United Nations trucks. Aid workers. Businessmen. Panicky government troops literally running for their lives.
On Wednesday afternoon, countless people of all kinds poured out of Goma, a strategic Congolese city on the border of Rwanda, fleeing the advancing rebel forces massing on the outskirts of town.
[Look At The African-American To Your Left. Look At The African-American To Your Right. How Many Can Find Congo On A Map? How Many Can Tell You What Is Happening There And Why?]
This was a place that was supposed to be safe, a town full of war-weary, displaced people who had come here for shelter, a town that the United Nations peacekeepers had defended against the very same rebels before.
But this time may be different.
“The Congolese Army has abandoned most of their positions,” a United Nations spokesman, Madnodje Mounoubai, said. “The road to Goma is now open to the rebels.”
Eastern Congo has been torn by conflict for more than a decade. But if Goma falls, it will be the first time in years that rebels have snatched a major city — and a particularly important one because it is a staging ground for United Nations aid efforts that are helping keep millions alive.
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