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AROUND 350,000 people have been displaced from their homes and left without shelter in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations warned today, as the Rwanda-backed paramilitaries claimed to have seized a second airport in the region.
Journalists were not immediately able to confirm whether Kavumu national airport was under the control of the M23 rebels or government forces.
Locals told reporters that the rebels were a few miles from the airport, a strategic spot for the government military in its fight with the rebels.
M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said on X, formerly Twitter, that the rebels had taken over Kavumu airport and its surroundings to “eliminate the threat at the source,” claiming: “The airport posed a danger to the civilian population.”
The airport became a target after the M23 rebels seized Goma, the region’s largest city, and its international airport in late January.
Goma is a critical trade and humanitarian hub that hosts many of the close to 6.5 million people displaced in the conflict, which is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Last week, M23 declared a unilateral ceasefire, but the government dismissed it as false. The rebels have continued to advance towards the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu, seizing several nearby towns including Katana, which was captured today.
The town is four miles from Kavumu airport.
The M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich east.
The rebellion has killed at least 2,000 people in and around Goma and left hundreds of thousands of displaced people stranded, the UN and Congolese authorities have said.
The UN refugee agency said today that hundreds of thousands of displaced people are now in overcrowded makeshift shelters, churches, schools and hospitals.
“Heavy artillery shelling and looting have destroyed 70,000 emergency shelters around Goma and Minova in North and South Kivu provinces, leaving some 350,000 internally displaced people once again without roofs over their heads,” the agency said.
