Families Desperately Search for Loved Ones Amid M23 Rebel Offensive

As the M23 rebel offensive intensifies, families are frantically searching for missing loved ones, highlighting the deepening humanitarian crisis in the affected regions.

On Monday, outside Goma’s North Kivu Hospital morgue, Red Cross workers loaded bodies into a large truck.

A week prior, the M23 rebels, supported by Rwanda, announced their control over the strategically important eastern Congolese city following their capture of several nearby towns in January.

Authorities reported that Goma’s morgues and hospitals have received 773 bodies, with another 2,880 individuals injured. Chiza Nyenyezi stood outside the morgue in tears as she looked at a photo of her deceased son; she has been unable to locate his body.

“A soldier approached him from behind. A member of the Congolese army-allied militia shot him in the back, and the bullet exited through his chest. The child then fell off the motorcycle. The same bullet also struck a person standing behind them, entering and exiting their chest as well,” Chiza recounted grimly.

Supported by 4,000 Rwandan troops, M23 is now more formidable than it was in 2012 when the group was ultimately expelled from the DRC.

However, analysts indicate that delaying them this time will prove to be more challenging.