The UN has announced that eight of their peacekeepers belonging to MONUSCO, the UN’s mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), were wounded during clashes with the DRC’s M23 rebels on Saturday. The clashes took place around the town of Sake, which is approximately 20km from the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma.
Combat has been ongoing around Sake for over a month now, with the town being the last barrier from the M23 completely cutting off Goma, a city of 2 million people. Isolating Goma would bring the city under the threat of capture, however the M23 claims to not want to capture the city, as they did in 2012 and almost did again in 2022.
The UN condemned the wounding of the peacekeepers, and called for the M23 to adhere to pre-established peace processes and withdraw from occupied territories.
