Overnight air strikes from Tuesday into Wednesday killed several people in the eastern city of Goma, according to sources who spoke to AFP. The city is currently controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group.
The M23 rebels resumed fighting in 2021 and have since captured large areas of the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with support from Rwanda, fueling renewed violence in a region that has faced decades of conflict.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions and the buzzing of drones across several residential neighbourhoods in Goma, a major provincial capital near the Rwandan border. The city fell to M23 forces during a rapid offensive in 2025.
One drone strike reportedly hit the residence of a staff member working for UNICEF, according to an Africanews correspondent.
The political-military alliance Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC)/M23 accused the Congolese army of launching the drone attack. Authorities in Kinshasa have not yet responded to the allegation.
The exact number of casualties remains unclear, but humanitarian sources said several buildings were hit and multiple people were killed by Wednesday morning.
At the scene, an AFP reporter saw one of the houses badly damaged, with part of the roof destroyed and sections of the structure burned. Shrapnel also struck nearby homes, shattering windows.
An aid worker living near the damaged building said he first heard the sound of a drone overhead before a powerful explosion tore a “hole in the roof” of the house.
By Wednesday morning, firefighters, United Nations personnel, and M23 officials were present at the site assessing the damage.
