Just in: Bomb rocks DR Congo airport amid fighting between rebels and government forces

Early on Saturday, as hostilities between rebels and government forces erupted, a bomb hit the airport in the unrest-plagued city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The M23 rebel group, which Kinshasa claims is supported by neighboring Rwanda, and Congolese government forces have been engaged in more violent clashes in the past few days in Sake, a strategically important town located roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Goma.

“Yes, it’s true—a bomb hit Goma airport last night,” an unnamed source from the North Kivu province governorate stated.

At the facility in Goma, the capital of North Kivu and home to a million people, a security source mentioned “two bombs” and said they “caused no damage.”

According to the source, two experts are examining the location from which the bombs were fired.

Residents of Goma and an AFP correspondent claimed to have heard two huge explosions.

This week, the UN Security Council denounced an offensive launched by the primarily Tutsi M23 rebels near Goma and expressed concern about the “escalating violence” in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rwanda is accused by the DRC, the UN, and Western nations of arming rebels in order to gain control of abundant mineral resources; Kigali refutes this claim.

In the previous two years, the rebels have taken control of large portions of North Kivu.

Tens of thousands of residents have fled to Goma, which is essentially shut off from the country’s interior and located between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border, as a result of the most recent fighting.

A classified UN dossier obtained by AFP earlier this week claims that the Rwandan army is supporting M23 with advanced weaponry such surface-to-air missiles.

A UN observation drone was shot at last Wednesday by a “suspected Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM),” but it was not struck, according to the report.

Despite having been in the DRC for almost 25 years, UN personnel are accused of not doing enough to shield civilians from armed groups.

Despite the unstable circumstances, the UN Security Council decided in December to grant Kinshasa’s request for a withdrawal.

African leaders gathered for a summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa reviewed the DRC issue on the sidelines late Friday and were scheduled to meet again on Saturday. This was due to the fact that numerous diplomatic attempts to stem the bloodshed in the Congo had failed.