Restoration of electric power in Goma: a successful repair after an outage caused by the M23
In an official press release, the company Virunga energies announced the restoration of electric power in most of the city of Goma. After 24 hours of outage caused by the M23, one of the damaged medium voltage lines was temporarily repaired, thus limiting the humanitarian impact of this situation.
The general director of Virunga energies, Ephrem Balole, expressed his gratitude to the teams of technicians who worked tirelessly to restore power as quickly as possible. We must highlight their bravery and commitment in the face of difficult conditions.
The power cut in most of the city of Goma was caused by bombings targeting power poles in the Kibumba area, located 27 km north of Goma. These bombings are part of clashes between the loyalist army and the M23 terrorists, supported by the Rwandan army.
This cut is a sad reminder of the capture of the Inga dam by RCD terrorists in 1998, also with the support of Rwanda. At the time, this outlet had deprived millions of people of electricity, demonstrating the deliberate strategy of asphyxiation of the Congolese population.
The Inga Dam, the country’s largest hydroelectric complex, is vitally important for the electricity supply of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, as well as other mining regions and neighboring countries. Its capture by the rebels had dramatic consequences on the population.
It is therefore important to highlight the similarities between past events and the current actions of Rwanda, which continues to support armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, leading to devastating consequences for the civilian population.
Restoring electricity to Goma is a crucial step in mitigating the consequences of this outage on the daily lives of residents. However, it is essential that measures are taken to ensure the security of electricity infrastructure and prevent further attacks.
In a context where access to electricity is essential to the economic and social development of a region, it is necessary to firmly condemn actions aimed at disrupting this essential service. The humanitarian consequences of such cuts must not be minimized, and diplomatic measures must be taken to find a lasting solution to these conflicts.