GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo - Dead bodies lay in the streets, gunfire rang out and hospitals were overwhelmed in east Congo's largest city Goma where M23 rebels backed by Rwanda faced pockets of resistance on Tuesday from army and pro-government militias. A day after the rebels marched into the lakeside city, protesters in the capital attacked a U. M23 fighters entered Goma on Monday in the worst escalation since of a three-decade conflict rooted in the long fallout from the Rwandan genocide and the struggle for control of Congo's abundant mineral resources.
Goma is a major hub for people displaced by fighting elsewhere in eastern Congo and aid groups seeking to assist them. Now the fighting has sent thousands of people streaming out of the city - some had recently sought refuge there from M23's offensive since the start of the year. Democratic Republic of Congo's government and the head of U. Rwanda has said it is defending itself against Congolese militias. Goma residents and U. People in several neighbourhoods reported small arms fire and some loud explosions.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U. Other international aid officials described hospitals overwhelmed with wounded being treated in hallways.
Explosives had hit a house where priests were staying and the maternity ward of a Catholic hospital on Monday, he said by phone. Francois Moreillon, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Congo, told Reuters a medicine warehouse had been looted, and he was concerned about a laboratory where dangerous germs including ebola were kept.
In Kinshasa, 1, km 1, miles away from Goma, angry crowds burned tyres, chanted anti-Rwanda slogans and attacked embassies of several countries seen as favourable to Rwanda, leading the police to fire tear gas. The Congolese people are fed up. How many times do we have to die? The Rwandan, French, U. Videos posted online and verified by Reuters showed dozens of people looting the Kenyan embassy, while others showed looting had spread to other locations including a supermarket.
