In latest advance, rebels in Congo say they have entered a key city

Rebels in Congo entered the vital trading hub of Bukavu in the east of the country Sunday, according to the fighters and videos circulated by local residents. If confirmed, Bukavu would be the latest city to fall in a sweeping offensive that has revealed the weakness of the crumbling Congolese army.

The M23 rebels — who are supported and directed by Rwanda, Congo’s much smaller neighbor — appeared to meet no resistance, residents said, as they marched into Bukavu, a provincial capital that is a major center for gold trading and smuggling.

“We’re there, we’re there in Bukavu,” said Willy Ngoma, an M23 spokesperson reached by telephone.

On Sunday, the rebels addressed a crowd of people in Bukavu’s main square after they entered the city in long, silent columns, according to three witnesses and videos shared on social media and verified by The New York Times. The witnesses requested anonymity for fear of retribution from the armed group.

Days earlier, Congolese soldiers had fled the city in similar columns, according to a dozen other residents, leaving Bukavu under no clear leadership and in the hands of looters who broke into warehouses and shops. The Congolese government has not spoken publicly about the situation in the city Sunday, and the capture of Bukavu has not been independently confirmed.

The apparent fall of Bukavu would stand in sharp contrast to the protracted battle for the key city of Goma last month, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed, according to the United Nations.

With the capture of Bukavu, a city of more than 1 million people that sits on the edge of a crystalline lake, the M23 rebels would now control the two largest trading hubs in Congo’s mineral-rich east.

Experts say Bukavu’s capture threatens to draw more neighboring countries into the conflict. The city sits 20 miles from the border with Burundi, whose troops have been fighting alongside the Congolese army.

“It will increase the risk of regional war, especially with Burundi,” Fred Bauma, executive director of Ebuteli, a research group specializing on Congo, said about Bukavu’s fall.

Now, M23 is also more directly connected to its powerful backer, Rwanda. Bukavu and Goma, on the southern and northern edges of the sprawling Lake Kivu, both sit on the border with Rwanda, whose exports of minerals smuggled out of Congo have spiked in recent years, according to U.N. experts.

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