Congolese Residents Flee Along Dangerous Routes to Escape Fighting

M23 rebels monitor the area next to residents in Bukavu on February 20, 2025. Luis Tato / AFP via Getty Images

When Aimable Gafurura heard the M23 rebel group had arrived in Rumangabo, a town in the Rutshuru territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Nov. 27, 2022, he quickly packed a few possessions and fled to escape to safety.

In fear of being caught on main roads, Gafurura traveled through Virunga National Park to Goma, a city of about 2 million people and the largest in eastern DRC, before escaping to neighboring Burundi.

Rwanda-backed M23, or the March 23 Movement, is a Tutsi-led rebel group formed in 2012 by former fighters of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a political armed militia. The M23 rebels say they aim to protect and defend the minority Tutsis in the DRC. Although shortly after its creation the M23 seized Goma, it suffered defeats from the Congolese army along with United Nations forces in 2013.

The group agreed to integrate into the army on promises that Tutsis would be protected. But in November 2021, the group re-emerged, claiming the promises had been ignored. Since the group resurged, the number of people who have fled has increased.

“I spent two nights in the bush before I got to Goma,” Gafurura recalled. He added that his experience before he arrived in Burundi was filled with moments of “fear and frustration.”

Dangerous Escape Routes

The M23 group has continued its offensive and has captured more cities in eastern DRC, including Goma, which it seized on Jan. 27 this year. The United Nations estimates that at least 2,900 people have been killed, more than 3,000 injured, and 500,000 people displaced since then.

Although the SADC Mission in the DRC forces were deployed to the DRC to support the Congolese government in restoring peace in the volatile eastern region, their mandate was terminated and troops were withdrawn after the conflict in Goma in January between the M23 and SADC Mission forces resulted in the deaths of 20 soldiers from South Africa, Malawi, and Tanzania.

The U.N. estimates that the latest advances to Goma has forced nearly 80,000 people to flee escalating tension and fighting in the eastern DRC into neighboring countries. Most of the fleeing residents risked their lives by escaping through dangerous paths such as the Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest, and using their possessions as life rafts to swim across the Rusizi river, which forms the border between Burundi and the DRC.

Since January, 61,000 people have arrived in Burundi. These Congolese have joined the 91,000 refugees and asylum seekers already in Burundi, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Laurent Mugiraneza, an independent political analyst in the DRC said fleeing the escalating tension is a huge risk and some people die crossing the border. The BBC reported in February that more than 20 people died in the river, while many separated from their families in the process of escaping from the escalating tensions.

“Some died due to lack of assistance,” Mugiraneza told The Epoch Times.

‘Forcibly Detained’

A growing concern among young people is the fear of being forcibly conscripted into the M23 rebel group. Mugiraneza said this is already happening in the eastern DRC.

“Young people were forcibly detained,” says Mugiraneza. “In our territories of Rutshuru, Masisi, and Nyiragongo, young people are being forcibly taken to fight alongside the M23. In refugee camps, young people were recruited as labor [and] they ended up in training camps.”

There have also been cases of atrocities committed by the rebel group since its re-emergence. David Masangu (name changed for his safety) said that on Dec. 13, 2022, the rebel group demanded that the people residing in some villages in the Rutshuru territory in North Kivu leave and move elsewhere. Masangu said he left the Rutshuru territory to live in Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province—which was not yet occupied by the rebels.

“The next day, these rebels vandalized my house and looted everything,” he told The Epoch Times. And when Goma was captured by the rebels in January, Masangu fled to Burundi.

Meanwhile, Gafurura, who is a human rights defender and coordinator of the Community Radio La Voix des Virunga in Rumangabo, said he is aware—and has condemned—these human rights abuses and unfair treatment against unarmed citizens in the eastern DRC. He said these injustices continue to encourage him to advocate for justice for victims.

His activism is also exposing him to threats and intimidation. “I have been threatened multiple times by the M23,” Gafurura said.

Hope for Peace

It is difficult to predict the outcome of the conflict and the possible next steps of both the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group—as numerous calls from the international community for a cease-fire have not yielded positive results.

In an attempt to restore peace and mediate the conflict between the Congolese government and the M23 rebel group, Angola president Joao Lourenco called for a cease-fire ahead of peace talks in Luanda on March 16. But less than 24 hours before the peace talks, the M23 announced that it would not participate in the dialogue following European Union sanctions imposed on its top leaders.

The U.S. State Department on Feb. 20 sanctioned “two individuals and two entities linked to violence and human rights abuses” in the DRC, including M23 and the Congo River Alliance spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston and two of his companies.

In the meantime, Gafurura and Masangu are filled with a sense of safety and are relieved that they are free from threats from the M23 rebel group. They hope peace is restored soon so they can return to their country and rebuild their territories.

“The ongoing conflict in the eastern DRC has had a very negative impact on me. I feel uncomfortable being outside my territory,” says Gafurura, who is currently staying in a refugee camp in Burundi. “I hope that peace is restored soon so that I can return to my usual and natural region.”