In the early hours of March 11, 2026, armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo carried out a drone strike in the Himbi area of Goma, reportedly targeting several leaders of the Alliance Fleuve Congo / March 23 Movement (AFC/M23).
Images circulating after the strike show a house heavily damaged by the drone attack, with parts of the building still burning.
Reports from Goma indicate that the Congolese government suspected that the house, belonging to a Belgian national identified as Pascal, was hosting some AFC/M23 leaders.
AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said three people were killed in the attack, including a foreign national working for an international organization.
Kanyuka stated that one of the victims was Carine Buisset, a French national working for UNICEF in Goma.
The deputy leader of AFC/M23 responsible for political affairs, diplomacy, and administration, Bertrand Bisimwa, accused the Congolese army of carrying out the strike and criticized what he described as continued violations of the ceasefire.
He said: “This violence that Kinshasa has once again carried out against us is part of its plan to permanently violate the ceasefire, along with the surprising silence of partners involved in the peace process.”
Later in the morning, peacekeeping troops from the United Nations mission in Congo, MONUSCO, arrived at the damaged house and began investigations to determine more details about the incident.
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has previously indicated that in 2026 it intends to retake territories controlled by AFC/M23 through military force. This comes despite repeated calls from the international community emphasizing that political dialogue is the best path to ending the conflict in eastern Congo.
Reports also suggest that the Congolese government has been using its national cyber security agency, CNC, to track the phone communications of certain AFC/M23 leaders as well as former Congolese president Joseph Kabila, who led the country from 2001 to 2019, in order to facilitate targeted drone strikes.
This is not the first such attack. In the early hours of March 24, 2026, Congolese forces launched another strike near the Rubaya center aimed at killing senior AFC/M23 commanders, including the group’s military chief Sultani Makenga.
That attack killed the AFC/M23 military spokesperson Willy Ngoma, along with several fighters, including members of his security detail.
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