Congo has severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda as fighting between Rwanda-backed rebels and government forces rages around the key eastern city of Goma.

Rwandan-backed rebels moved to tighten their grip on the strategic city of Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday in what Kinshasa described as “a declaration of war” by its neighbour.

Residents in eastern Congo’s largest city of Goma are fleeing after Rwanda-backed rebels claimed to have captured the regional hub from Congolese forces.

Back in 2012, pressure on Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, by donor countries including America preceded a swift ouster from Goma of M23 by UN peacekeepers. That scenario seems less likely this time around.

France expresses its solidarity regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo and condemns actions by Rwanda in the country, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday.

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels marched into the centre of Goma, the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rwandan diplomats say their army is not deployed in the DRC, but if it was it would be to protect the Congolese Tutsi community and their own borders against the rebel Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda. The FDLR includes combatants who participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

M23 insurgency in eastern Congo has intensified in January with the rebels seizing control of more territory than ever before, prompting the United Nations to warn of the risk of a broader regional war.

Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo are closing in on a key city in the mineral-rich region aided by neighboring Rwanda’s army, the head of a peacekeeping mission told United Nations Security Council members during an emergency meeting on Sunday.

Rwandan-backed rebels marched into east Congo’s largest city Goma yesterday and Congolese troops exchanged fire with the Rwandan military across the border, in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.

It has now been almost three and a half years since the Rwandan Law No. 058/2021 of October 13, 2021, on the protection of personal data and privacy (the “Data Protection Act” or “DPA”) came into force,