GOMA, DR Congo: The M23 armed group, which controls large parts of eastern DR Congo, on Friday described a call by the French president to reopen Goma airport as “inopportune.”
President Emmanuel Macron said the key airport would open “in the coming weeks” for humanitarian flights, during an international conference on Thursday on the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The region — bordering Rwanda with abundant natural resources but plagued by non-state armed groups — has suffered extreme violence for more than three decades.
The crisis intensified with the 2021 resurgence of the M23 — a Rwandan-backed armed group fighting the Kinshasa authorities — and came to a head early this year when the militia seized the key cities of Goma and Bukavu.
Goma airport was the scene of fierce fighting during the city’s capture in January and has since remained closed.
The M23, which was not invited to the Paris conference on supporting peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes region, “considers inopportune France’s call for the reopening” of Goma airport, spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.
“Such an initiative must only be undertaken within the framework of negotiations currently under way in Doha under Qatari mediation,” he added.
The Congolese government and the M23 signed a declaration of principles on July 19 in Qatar that included a “permanent ceasefire” aimed at halting the conflict.
It followed a separate US-brokered peace deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed in Washington in June.
However, efforts to end the conflict have proved slow to take effect on the ground.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has also expressed doubts.
“Paris cannot reopen an airport, as the primary stakeholders are absent,” he said on Thursday, referring to the M23 group.
Humanitarian officials have voiced doubts, too, about a possible reopening and underlined that the land route remains essential for delivering aid to areas under M23 control.
The M23 said in its statement that there was “no longer a humanitarian emergency” in areas under its control.
After seizing Goma, the M23 ordered displaced people living on the outskirts of the city to return home and in a few days emptied makeshift camps where hundreds of thousands had been living in dire conditions.
The Paris conference raised more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in international aid for the region, Macron announced.