FARDC still in control of Goma & Rwandan-Congolese artillery exchange

I said in yesterday's post that a medical source in Goma thought that

M23 had entered the city as the firing that started at around 15:00

HRS (GMT + 2) continued unabated well into the evening.



Later on, I twitted a Radio Okapi report that conveyed the statement

of Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu Province, to the effect

that "the enemy that had infiltrated the city had been repelled."



But all night long newswires kept reporting that some FARDC units had

skipped town, which didn't bode well for the prospects of the city.



Then this morning Radio Okapi filed a report stating that "[s]ome

[FARDC] units that withdrew from the city Monday, November 19, after

the fire exchange with M23 rebels around Goma airport have gone back

to their positions at different strategic points of the provincial

capital of North Kivu."



The report adds:



"At Birere, a populous neighborhood of Goma, the youths were jubilant

this Tuesday morning. They say they feel happy to have seen the FARDC

return to the city since dawn. Some units had left Monday evening.

Those youths had then felt to have been handed over to M23 rebels that

were threatening to seize the city."



The Radio Okapi piece adds however a detail that could prove in

hindsight to be a major turning point in the escalating conflict:

FARDC artillery shelled positions on Rwandan territory:



"Birere residents state that they have seen, for the first time

yesterday, FARDC shelling in the direction of Rwanda. 'A gesture we

were awaiting for quite a longtime,' they told Radio Okapi."



(Source:

radiookapi.net/actualite/2012/11/20/rdc-les-fardc-se-repositionnent-dans-les-points-strategiques-de-goma/)



One source in Goma I spoke to this morning adds more details to the

artillery incident.



According to her, there were in fact two artillery exchanges yesterday

between the Rwandan city of Gisenyi and Goma--with dead and injured on

both sides, though she couldn't provide the death toll.



The source further claims that the FARDC shelled Rwanda first, to

which Rwanda responded as indiscrimitaly as the incoming Congolese

shelling.



As of this writing, the source tells me, people are huddled in their

homes as there are still sporadic gunshot reports. She can't tell

whether it's another M23 infiltration of just the FARDC firing in the

air.



I also spoke with the stranded Kinois passenger of the grounded

Kinshasa-bound CAA flight. He is growing desperate to leave Goma. He's

uncannily thinking of crossing into Rwanda, then heading to Uganda

where he'd then catch a plane to Kinshasa!



I tried very hard to talk him out of that crazy plan... to no avail, apparently!