THE United Nations World Food Programme reported widespread looting of food stores and warehouses in the key Congolese city of Goma today.

News of the deteriorating situation in Goma came a day after the country’s President Felix Tshisekedi called for a massive military mobilisation to help fight Rwanda-backed rebels who were attempting to seize more territory in the country’s east.

In his first public remarks since the M23 rebels advanced into eastern Congo’s largest city, Goma, on Monday, President Tshisekedi late on Wednesday vowed “a vigorous and co-ordinated response” to push back the rebels while reaffirming his commitment to a peaceful resolution. 

The president urged young people to “enlist massively in the army because you are the spearhead of our country.”

As much of Goma remained without electricity and water on Thursday, several bodies allegedly of government soldiers were lying in the streets as residents including children looked on in horror.

UN World Food Programme emergency co-ordinator Cynthia Jones reported widespread looting of food stores and warehouses in Goma.

She said: “This is something that is going to exacerbate a dangerous cycle of violence as desperate times call for desperate measures.”

The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to UN experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma. 

They are one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits estimated to be worth the equivalent of around £19 trillion that are critical to much of the world’s technology.

After capturing much of Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for more than 6 million people displaced by the conflict in eastern Congo, the rebels were advancing toward South Kivu’s provincial capital, Bukavu, causing fear and panic among residents, witnesses said today.

Nene Bintou, a civil society leader, said that gunshots and explosions were heard in Mukwinja, a captured town 86 miles from Bukavu.

The Congolese military has been weakened after hundreds of foreign military contractors withdrew and handed over their arms to the rebels. 

Residents of Goma described seeing soldiers changing into civilian clothing and dropping their guns as they crossed over the border to Rwanda or took shelter in foreign peacekeeping bases.

A summit of the regional east African bloc called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in eastern Congo and “strongly urged” President Tshisekedi’s government to hold talks with the rebels. 

President Tshisekedi was absent from the virtual summit, which was attended by Rwanda, also a member.