"It is with dismay that we learn of the M23's seizure of the center of Masisi," said Alexis Bahunga, deputy from North Kivu province, where the city of Masisi is located.
The same source revealed that the government was asked to take "measures to reestablish the authority of the State throughout the territory", in reference to the area that is experiencing "a serious humanitarian crisis".
Masisi is located about 80 kilometers north of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, on a road that runs into the interior of the country.
A resident of Masisi, Dieudonné Mirimo Mahibdule, claimed that the rebels had taken the town at around 2pm local time. "They held a meeting here in the parish and told us that they had come to liberate the country," he added.
The city center is "calm for now" but civilians have fled to hospitals to escape gunfire earlier in the day, a hospital source said on condition of anonymity.
"Some civilians were injured, but so far no deaths have been reported in the hospital," he assured.
Since November 2021, the M23 ("March 23 Movement") rebellion has taken over vast swaths of territory in the resource-rich eastern DRC, which has been torn by conflict for 30 years.
By the end of December, the rebellion continued to gain ground in the northern part of North Kivu, reaching a distance of around 50 kilometers from Lubero, the territory's capital, and around 100 kilometers from the city of Butembo, an important commercial crossroads of the region.
Last month, a meeting was scheduled between the Congolese president, Félix Tshisekedi, and the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, at a summit organized in Luanda by the head of state João Lourenço, mediator appointed by the African Union (AU) for the conflict between Kigali and Kinshasa.
An agreement was scheduled to be presented "for the re-establishment of peace and stability in Eastern DRC", but the two parties were unable to reach an agreement on the terms, which led to the cancellation of the summit.
