Red Cross escorts more than 1,300 DR Congo soldiers out of rebel city

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Goma, DR Congo | AFP

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Thursday it had evacuated more than 1,300 DR Congo soldiers and police out of the eastern city of Goma that is controlled by the M23 armed group.

M23, which UN experts have said is aided by Rwanda, took over Goma in January in the latest surge in the decades-old conflict in eastern DR Congo.

Thousands of people were killed in the fighting, and about 2,000 police and government troops sought refuge in bases of the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO, according to UN sources.

The ICRC announced at the end of April that it was starting missions to escort the security forces out of Goma on a 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) trip to the capital Kinshasa.

The Red Cross said that between April 30 and Thursday, it had "accompanied 1,359 unarmed people belonging to the government forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo and their families".

Hundreds of the security forces have either gone over to the M23 or fled the bases since January, UN sources said.

The ICRC said the operation had been "complex" and involved long negotiations with MONUSCO, the government and M23, which had refused to allow evacuations through Goma's airport, closed since the takeover.