Rwanda-backed rebels advance and Congolese forces retreat from eastern Congo’s second largest city

GOMA, Congo — Panic swept through eastern Congo’s second-largest city on Saturday as residents fled by the thousands, scrambling to escape the looming advance of Rwanda-backed rebels.

The morning after M23 fighters entered the outskirts of Bukavu — a city of about 1.3 million people that lies 63 miles south of rebel-held Goma — some streets were packed by residents attempting to leave and looters filling flour sacks with what they could find.

Later on Saturday, gunfights stopped after Congolese troops exited the city and drove south, Bukavu resident Alexis Bisimwa said.

“We’re no longer waiting for the crackling of bullets as we were during the day,” he said by telephone.

Most people waited in their homes, shocked as corpses burned to ash lay strewn in the streets — casualties of the looters who filled the vacuum left by Congolese soldiers earlier abandoning their posts.

“They set fire to the ammunition they were unable to take with them,” said Alain Iragi, among the residents who fled in search of safety on Saturday.

Reports and social media videos showed the region’s factories pillaged and prisons emptied.

“It’s a disgrace. Some citizens have fallen victim to stray bullets,” said a 25-year-old resident who said soldiers had taken part in looting.

The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes M23, blamed Congolese troops and their allies from local militia and neighboring Burundi for the disorder in Bukavu.

M23, a rebel group backed by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, is the most prominent of more than 100 vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east.

Congolese authorities and international observers have accused it of sexual violence, forced conscription and summary executions. M23’s southward expansion poses an unprecedented challenge to the central government in Kinshasa.

The rebellion has killed nearly 3,000 people in eastern Congo and stranded hundreds of thousands of displaced. At least 350,000 internally displaced people are without shelter, the U.N. and Congolese authorities have said.

The rebels on Friday also claimed to have seized a second airport in the region, outside Bukavu. The AP couldn’t confirm who was in control of the strategically important airport.

The reports of looting and disorder came a day after residents told the AP that soldiers in Kavumu — the airport town north of Bukavu — had abandoned their positions to head toward the city. The chain of events mirror what transpired last month in the lead-up to the M23’s capture of Goma. Congo’s military, despite its size and funding, has long been hindered by shortcomings in training and coordination and recurring reports of corruption.

International leaders are expected to discuss the conflict at the African Union summit in Ethiopia this weekend as Congo President Félix Tshisekedi continues to plead with the international community to intervene to contain the rebels and blacklist “expansionist” Rwanda for backing them. Tshisekedi wasn’t at the summit.

Yet African leaders and the international community have been reluctant to take decisive action against M23 or Rwanda.

In Addis Ababa on Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned of the conflict spiraling into a regional conflagration.

“Regional escalation must be avoided at all costs,” Guterres told the African Union summit. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of (Congo) must be respected.”

Though Guterres said that the solution to the conflict lay in Africa, African leaders disagree on how to resolve the conflict in a way that satisfies the warring parties.

Despite universal calls for a cease-fire, the rebellion has inflamed historic tensions. Troops from Burundi and the Southern African Development Community are deployed in support of Congolese forces. Ugandan troops are fighting other rebel groups in other regions within eastern Congo, where attacks on civilians have been reported in recent months.

Kabumba, Metz and Muhumuza write for the Associated Press. Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco, and Muhumuza from Kampala, Uganda.