At least three people were killed in a drone strike in Goma early Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the M23 rebel group said.
The attack occurred around 4 a.m. in a residential neighborhood of the city, which has been under occupation by the M23 since January 2025.
Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesman for the Congo River Alliance rebel group, which includes M23, condemned the attack and accused the government of being behind it.
“The terrorist regime in Kinshasa is carrying out a drone attack against the city of Goma, far beyond the front lines,” he said in X. “This act of aggression constitutes an intolerable provocation directed at a densely populated urban area and deliberately endangering thousands of innocent civilians.”
The government has not commented on the attack and no one has claimed responsibility.
Images on social media show rescuers putting out a fire on the upper floor of a two-story house with a damaged roof.
Goma, capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was the scene of deadly fighting last January when M23 rebels stormed the city in an attempt to make territorial gains in the region. Up to 2,000 people died.
The Rwandan-backed M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting Congolese forces in the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It says it aims to safeguard the interests of Congolese Tutsis and other minorities, including protection against Hutu rebel groups who escaped to the Democratic Republic of the Congo after participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis.
The M23 occupies large swaths of eastern DRC and has established parallel governments in the territories it controls.
Fighting has continued in the region despite a US-brokered peace agreement signed in December between the Congolese and Rwandan governments.
Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on the Rwandan military and four of its senior officials, accusing them of “supporting, training and fighting” alongside the M23.
Wednesday’s drone strike signals a shift in conflict dynamics due to the increasing use of drone warfare by both sides.
Two weeks ago, an army drone strike on Rubaya, a major coltan mining town controlled by the M23, killed the group’s military spokesman, Willy Ngoma, and several other leaders.
Last week, M23 claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting Kisangani airport in Tshopo province in the east of the country.
