Goma hit by insecurity on the even of Jacquemain Shabani visit: This is the thing we have observed and appears deliberate
Insecurity in Goma City, North Kivu Province the Democratic Republic of Congo on the eve of the visit of Jacquemain Shabani, the Minister of Internal Affairs on the nights of Sunday and Monday.
Jacquemain Shabani, DRC Minister of Internal Affairs
On Sunday August 4th, 2024 starting 1am up to 4 pm, there were gunshot in some parts of Goma especially areas that near the city center, people panicked, and others believed that may be M23 rebels have entered the city of Goma. In the process armed people broke into some houses and took a lot of properties which they wanted, good enough this time they did not kill people and this was one thing new.
Areas affected were Majengo, Katoyi, Mabanga, Katindo II, and Himbi, and Ndosho. In the process from 1am up to 4am there was intervention of the Police and the Authorities at all levels, yet everyone in Goma was affected by this and panicked. These armed people stopped their operations by themselves at 4am and went back to unknown places, these armed people are believed to be Government Soldiers according to some witnesses among civil population.
As usual this situation of creating insecurity happened at the eve of the visit of the Minister of Internal Affairs Jacquemain Shabani who came on Monday for an official visit to launch a project focusing on the stabilization of North Kivu.
We continue to observe the same actions from the soldiers when there a high delegation from Kinshasa, there are always generalized insecurity in Goma characterized by gunshot and bullets both in the evening and at night by army officers, breaking into houses of civilians and killing of innocent people in mostly highly populated areas, which seem to push the local population for demonstration, and we have also viewed that in the process some people have been motivated to hold a demonstration over insecurity in Goma especially when the high delegation from Kinshasa is already in Goma.
Circumstances before
As usual a week before, we observed the increased insecurity in some areas especially in north part of Goma, where in some places soldiers killed a Motorcyclist from his home, we believe this intended to revolt all those in this sector as they are believed to be among hot people who can easily start demonstrations, however nothing happened, in the process we observed killing of a young person in Katoyi which is believed to be a hot areas in terms of demonstrations but also still nothing happened, then in the process, we saw some people agitating against the currently military regime which we believe was deliberate focusing towards this visit, and then as usual we observed a demonstration on Monday August 5th, 2025 in some parts in Northern Goma in which people demonstrated against insecurity and then in that very day at night the Minister of Internal Affairs came.
Why should this happen?
Two options are to be considered on one side the Military may want to justify the need to have enough money for security and the best option may be when there is a high delegation from Kinshasa and the second option may be related to accounting for the funds that were allocated to security, and the best is organize all these actions in order to justify the spending.
Reactions from the Authorities
Since Sunday up to now, no authorities have made a single public statement about the situation of gun-shots, all are silent. Still as we have said, authorities did not intervene during both days and in the process none of the demonstrators was arrested yet we are in a military regime where demonstrations are not allowed. There was no attempt even to arrest the demonstrators who enjoyed all their time yet this is not observed towards those who are not connected to the Military Regime.
Recommendations
We call upon the DRC Government to investigate insecurity in Goma, and come up with the necessary actions against the authors,
We call upon human rights organizations to pay particular attention to this insecurity in Goma, and document cases and the causes,
We call upon the engagement of people to stop being used by those in power,
We call upon the Mayor and the Governor to put in place urgent interventions and in case they do not, they should be held accountable for their failure to do their work,
