A French national working for UNICEF was killed in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.
Macron offered condolences to the victim’s family.
“A French UNICEF humanitarian worker has been killed in Goma. I extend the nation’s support and sympathy to her family, loved ones and colleagues,” Macron said at X, urging “respect for humanitarian law and for staff on the ground and committed to saving lives.”
A series of drone strikes hit Lake Kivu and a private residence about 50 meters (164 feet) from the home of former Congolese President Joseph Kabila Kabange, according to the AP.
A spokesman for the M23 rebel group blamed the government for the attack. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After taking up arms again in 2021, M23 has seized territory in the mineral-rich Congolese east with the support of Rwanda, unleashing a new spiral of violence in a region long plagued by fighting.
Although Rwanda and DR Congo signed a peace accord at the urging of US President Donald Trump in early December, in the latest attempt to end the conflict, clashes continue on the front.
Explosions and buzzing drones
The Congolese army, hundreds of kilometers from Goma, regularly launches long-range drone attacks on M23 positions in the east.
According to security sources, M23 uses explosive drones on the front.
According to witnesses, the sound of bomb blasts and buzzing drones rang out in several residential neighborhoods of Goma, the large provincial capital near the border with Rwanda, which was captured in a 2025 M23 lightning offensive.
Humanitarian sources reported that several buildings were targeted and several people were killed by Wednesday morning.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw that one of the houses hit was badly burned, partially burnt and had its roof destroyed.
Shrapnel also hit neighboring buildings, blowing out their windows.
‘hole in the roof’
An aid worker close to the home hit told AFP he heard the sound of a drone, followed by a large explosion that blew a “hole in the roof” of the building.
Firefighters, United Nations workers and M23 officers attended the scene on Wednesday morning.
For three decades, the mineral-rich Congolese east has been wracked by dozens of armed groups, with foreign troops wandering in from time to time.
M23 brokered half-a-dozen cease-fires hoping to end the conflict before being broken in the short term.
In early March, M23 announced the death of one of its spokesmen, Willy Ngoma, in a drone attack near the Rubaya mine in North Kivu province.
The Rubaya mine is under the control of M23 and is a major source of revenue for the armed group, which taxes the extraction and trade of minerals in its patch.
UN experts believe Rwanda uses the M23 as a tool to control the Congolese east’s rich veins of critical minerals, particularly colton key for makers of mobile phones and electric car batteries.
In early March, the US announced sanctions against the Rwandan military as a result of its support for M23.
While denying M23 military support, Rwanda insists it faces an existential threat from the presence in eastern DRC of armed groups linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi.
(with FRANCE 24 AFP and AP)
(tags to translate) Africa
