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 26 January last year 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.
“Suddenly, I heard my wife cry out. She fell, hit by a stray bullet,” he recalled.
Neighbours braved the gunfire to come and help, and a vehicle was found to transport his wife to the hospital, ultimately saving her life.
Medical facilities were overwhelmed with the wounded, and bodies covered in white bags were piled up at the morgues.
A year on, Goma residents endure “constant oppression” by the M23 group, says government spokesman Patrick Muyaya.
Oppressive quiet
In the weeks that followed its capture, the streets emptied out at nightfall and the buzz disappeared from the bars that once offered some respite in a region scarred by three decades of conflict.
Escaped prisoners, militia fighters, and soldiers who had evaded capture roamed Goma after dark, breaking into homes and threatening residents.
With the police and court system no longer functioning, the M23 eventually began to systematically cordon off neighbourhoods in search of criminals.
By late May, several hundred men were sitting on the dark volcanic gravel covering the streets of Murambi village on Goma’s northern outskirts, watched over by members of the M23.
Local leaders and families are ordered to identify those they recognise as upstanding citizens. The others are detained.
Rough justice
But on the street, anyone deemed suspicious looking drew the M23’s ire.
People spoke of those who had been hauled off to the city sports stadium serving as an open-air prison for wearing dirty clothes or having an untidy beard.
An M23 spokesman invited reporters on several occasions to view the results of the operation — detainees separated into categories.
Desperate families crowded at the entrance, pleading to get their relatives released.
Those not cleared by testimony deemed reliable ended up at secret detention sites. NGO reports denounced torture and summary executions.
But, in time, residents and observers agreed that Goma’s streets were returning to relative safety.
With no independent justice system in place, opponents of the M23 faced repression, some accused of being in cahoots with the pro-government militia.
In October, the armed group — whose declared aim is to overthrow the government and end corruption — began appointing magistrates, but observers indicated there was little impartiality.
Despite parallel peace efforts backed by the United States and Qatar, the M23 launched a new offensive on the strategic town of Uvira near the Burundi border in December.
“These events have shown that the Rwandan president is not at all comfortable with peace processes,” Muyaya, the government spokesman, said.
‘Ideological training.’
Most civil society representatives and rights campaigners had fled Goma before the M23 entered.
Civilians and former government combatants were forcibly recruited by the group, which in September announced it had 7,000 new members in its ranks.
At the same time, it began to impose taxes to finance its war effort but the city, already on its knees, has had no functioning banks for a year after the government ordered their closure to cut off the rebellion’s funding.
The airport remains inaccessible and trade between Goma and areas under government control has dwindled.
Civil servants were among the first to feel the blow of such cuts.
“There were about 200 agents here, around 20 left to work” in government-held areas, urban planning officer Claude Mumbere said.
“The others are here doing nothing,” he added. His name has also been modified for security reasons.
Some had to undergo “ideological training” provided by the M23.
Mother-of-three Madeleine Mubuto’s husband lost his job.
“We had set aside a small amount of money at home that helped us at first, but after a year, almost all of it is used up,” she said.
In the absence of cash, Rwanda’s currency is now used at Goma’s markets.
“Many are wondering how long this situation is going to last,” Kamundu said, adding, “We adapt because we have nowhere to go.”
