GOMA, DR Congo: They were caught under a barrage of fire and became trapped with “nowhere to go” after their city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fell under the M23 armed group’s control a year ago.
Around one million Goma residents were holed up in their homes on January 26, 2025, when the Congolese army and its allies were forced to pull out of the provincial capital.
Hundreds of Rwandan soldiers had just poured across the border to fight alongside the M23 in a lightning offensive to seize the lakeside city.
Thousands of people were killed in the intense clashes.
Janvier Kamundu, whose name has been changed for security reasons, was sheltering from the fighting at home with his wife and children.
