Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
The African Union is holding an emergency meeting today after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels overran Goma, the main city of eastern DRC.
M23 says it exists to protect ethnic Tutsis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 31 years after nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by Hutu extremists in Rwanda in the worst genocide since the Holocaust.
This isn't the first time M23 fighters have taken Goma. They did so briefly in 2012 and re-emerged in 2021 more closely aligned with the Rwandan government of the dictator (and darling of some development economists) Paul Kagame.
Civilians in Goma were filmed welcoming the rebels, but several told the Guardian they were smiling and clapping for their own safety.
