At least three people lost their lives in a drone strike that hit Goma in the early hours of Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the M23 rebel movement.

The strike reportedly occurred around 4am in a residential district of the city, which has been under M23 control since January 2025.

Lawrence Kanyuka, who speaks for the Congo River Alliance—a coalition of rebel factions that includes M23—denounced the incident and blamed the Congolese government.

“A drone strike is currently targeting the city of Goma by the terrorist regime in Kinshasa, far from any active front lines,” he stated on social media. “This aggression represents an unacceptable provocation against a densely populated urban area and deliberately places thousands of innocent civilians at risk.”

The Congolese government has yet to issue a response, and no group has formally claimed responsibility for the attack.

Images circulating online appear to show emergency crews extinguishing flames on the upper floor of a two-storey house, where the roof sustained significant damage.

Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest urban centre in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, witnessed intense clashes last January when M23 fighters seized the city in a push to expand their territorial control. The fighting resulted in as many as 2,000 deaths.

The Rwanda-backed M23 is among more than 100 armed factions engaged in conflict with Congolese government forces in the mineral-rich eastern region of the country. The group says it aims to defend Congolese Tutsis and other minority communities, including protecting them from Hutu rebel groups that fled to the DRC after participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsis.

M23 currently controls extensive areas of eastern DRC and has set up parallel administrative structures in territories under its authority.

Hostilities have persisted despite a peace agreement brokered by the United States and signed in December by the governments of the DRC and Rwanda.

Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on the Rwandan military and four senior officers, alleging that they were “supporting, training, and fighting” alongside M23 forces.

The drone strike on Wednesday reflects evolving tactics in the conflict, with both sides increasingly relying on unmanned aerial attacks.

Two weeks earlier, a Congolese army drone strike in Rubaya—an important coltan mining town controlled by M23—killed the group’s military spokesperson, Willy Ngoma, along with several other senior figures.

In a separate incident last week, M23 claimed responsibility for a drone strike aimed at Kisangani airport in Tshopo province in eastern DRC.