Kinshasa residents welcome president's call to resist, as rebels vow to advance to the capital

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(30 Jan 2025)
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kinshasa, DR Congo – 30 January 2025
1. Various exteriors of building vandalized during last Tuesday's protest
2. Close of smashed windows
3. Man reading newspaper in front of kiosk
4. Various of newspapers at kiosk
5. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) Jean Michel Kamba, Kinshasa resident: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
“I would like to congratulate the Chief (DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi) for his speech. We are the people and we want him to know that we are always with him. But we advise him to keep his eyes open because around him there are traitors, thieves who deceive him and they are members of the sacred union (the presidential coalition).”
6. Various of traffic
7. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) Eva Mpunha, Kinshasa resident: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
“We young people want to enlist in the army so that we can guard against the enemy day and night to protect our country. We young people will not give in. I'm happy with this call (by Tshisekedi)."
8. Various of traffic
9. SOUNDBITE (Lingala) Kany Malolo David, Kinshasa resident: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"Talking a lot is not a problem, we want the president to unite the politicians and the military to win the war."
10. Street scene
STORYLINE:
Kinshasa residents on Thursday welcomed a long-awaited address by President Félix Tshisekedi, saying they wanted action to end war in eastern Congo.

Congo’s president called for a massive military mobilization to resist the rebellion in a televised speech broadcast late on Wednesday.

“I would like to congratulate the chief for his speech... we want him to know that we are always with him," said Jean Michel Kamba, warning the president to beware of the "traitors" and "thieves" around him.

Some buildings in the capital still bear the marks of vandalism carried out earlier this week by demonstrators denouncing the international community's perceived inaction against the advancing M23 rebels and their Rwandan allies.

In his first public remarks since M23 rebels captured the key city of Goma on Monday, Tshisekedi vowed “a vigorous and coordinated response” to push them back, while reaffirming his commitment to a peaceful resolution.

He called on young people to enlist massively in the military.

Kinshasa resident Eva Mpunha said he was "happy with this call".

“We young people want to enlist in the army so that we can guard against the enemy day and night to protect our country. We young people will not give in," he said.

Meanwhile, in the east of the country, the rebels fighters moved beyond Goma in an apparent attempt to expand their control in the conflict-battered region.

The rebels said Thursday they want to take their fight to the far-off capital, Kinshasa.

They did not indicate how they planned to advance on the capital, more than 1,500 kilometers (nearly 1,000 miles) away.

A summit of the regional East African bloc on Thursday called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and “strongly urged” Tshisekedi’s government to hold talks with the rebels.

Tshisekedi was conspicuously absent from the virtual summit attended by Rwanda, also a member.

The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma.

They are one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits estimated to be worth $24 trillion that are critical to much of the world’s technology.

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