After Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took control of the biggest city in eastern Congo this week, the man who emerged from the shadows to assert his leadership was not the group's long-time military leader.

M23 is the latest in a series of Tutsi-led rebellions that have emerged in Congo's east since the official end of a string of conflicts between 1996 and 2003 that sucked in most of Congo's neighbouring countries and killed 6 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

M23 now controls nearly all of North Kivu and the province’s vast mineral wealth—including tin (cassiterite), tantalum (coltan), tungsten (wolframite), and gold, which are critical for global electronics and industrial production.

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo - 01, 2025 The leader of the March Movement (M23), Bertrand Bisimwa, and the leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC-M23), Corneille Nangaa, participated on Saturday in an exercise to clean up the city of Goma after the fighting that led the M23 to take the city on Monday.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reported that at least 773 people have been killed in Goma, the largest city in the country's east, and surrounding areas within a week due to ongoing clashes with M23 rebels,