{"id":52739,"date":"2025-01-27T12:22:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/drc-soldiers-flee-to-rwanda\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T13:05:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T13:05:25","slug":"drc-soldiers-flee-to-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/drc-soldiers-flee-to-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC soldiers flee to Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The capture of Goma, a key city in North Kivu Province also prompted officials to flee by boat to Bukavu.<\/p>\n<p>Some government soldiers in Goma chose to surrender to M23, handing over their weapons, while others fled to Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>The soldiers who sought refuge in Rwanda were welcomed by security authorities in Rubavu District. <\/p>\n<p>Over 20 individuals crossed the border with firearms, including ammunition, which they handed over to the Rwanda Defense Forces.<\/p>\n<p>One of the Congolese soldiers who fled to Rwanda after the capture of Goma revealed that he surrendered because the FARDC forces were being defeated by M23.<\/p>\n<p>He said, &#8220;I have arrived in Rwanda fleeing the state of war. We fought many battles, but M23 was winning. We came here to surrender to the [authorities].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alongside FARDC soldiers, United Nations personnel who were in Goma also sought refuge in Rwanda. They are expected to be taken to Kigali and accommodated in various hotels.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, M23 controls the city of Goma and has declared the airspace closed, halting all activities on the Congolese side of Lake Kivu. <\/p>\n<p>The group has urged Goma&#8217;s residents to remain calm, assuring them that the city has been liberated and everything is under control.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-80610\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/b-40.jpg\" alt=\"Congolese soldiers fled to Rwanda after being defeated by M23. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-80611\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/k-28.jpg\" alt=\"Fleeing Congolese were taken to designated sites upon arrival in Rwanda. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-80613\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/n-16.jpg\" alt=\"Some of the Congolese soldiers who fled to Rwanda on Monday morning after the fall of Goma to M23 rebel group.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-80612\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/m-23.jpg\" alt=\"Fleeing FARDC soldiers handed over their weapons to be granted refuge to Rwanda. This photo shows sme of carried weapons.    \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-80615\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/v-24.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s (DRC) Armed Forces (FARDC), sought refuge in Rwanda on Monday morning after the fall of Goma to M23 rebel group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000080609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-52739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000080609,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/n-2.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/n-2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/n-2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/n-2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/n-2.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/n-2.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000080609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52739"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=52739"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=52739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}