Kenyan soldiers have landed in the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as part of a regional peacekeeping mission in the region. Their arrival on Saturday comes as the M23 rebel group has surged into the DRC’s North Kivu province, seizing swaths of territory and stoking regional tensions. This week, Kenya’s parliament approved the deployment of about 900 troops to the DRC as part of a joint military force from the East African Community (EAC) bloc. Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Goma airport, said two Kenyan transport planes had arrived and about 60 troops had disembarked. More than 120 armed groups operate in the DPRK’s volatile east, many of them a legacy of regional wars that broke out at the turn of the century. M23, a predominantly Congolese Tutsi group, first rose to prominence in 2012, briefly capturing Goma before being driven out. After lying dormant for years, the group took up arms again in late 2021, claiming that Kinshasa had not followed through on a commitment to integrate them into the military, among other grievances. M23 rebels have won a series of victories against the Congolese army in North Kivu in recent weeks, dramatically increasing the area under their control. Their resurgence has soured relations between the DRC and its smaller neighbor Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting M23. Kigali denies the charge. Al Jazeera’s Webb said the first arrivals were expected to be part of a larger force sent by Nairobi. “Kenya says it is going to send a battalion of about 900 soldiers. This is a small number when you consider the vast territories controlled by armed groups in eastern DR Congo, or compared to the UN peacekeeping force which at times had up to 20,000 troops and failed to stabilize the region,” he said. “People are waiting to know what these Kenyan troops are really going to do and whether they will join the DR Congo army’s fight against M23.” There was heavy fighting between the army and the M23 in Rugari in North Kivu on Friday and power was cut in Goma, a major commercial hub of about a million people. Diplomatic efforts are also underway to ease tensions in eastern DRC. Angolan President Joao Lourenco visited Rwanda on Friday and was due to travel to the DRC on Saturday. Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is also expected in the DRC capital for talks on Sunday.
