French aid worker among three killed in drone attack in eastern DRC, M23 rebels say

At least three people, including a French humanitarian worker for the UN children’s agency, were killed in a drone attack in Goma early on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the M23 rebel group has said.

The attack happened at about 4am in a residential neighbourhood in the city, which has been under M23 occupation since January 2025.

Lawrence Kanyuka, the spokesperson of the Congo River Alliance group of rebels that includes M23, condemned the attack and accused the government of being behind it.

“A drone attack is currently being carried out against the city of Goma by the terrorist regime of Kinshasa, well beyond the frontlines,” he said on X. “This act of aggression constitutes an intolerable provocation targeting a densely populated urban area and deliberately endangering thousands of innocent civilians.”

The government has not commented on the attack and no one has claimed responsibility.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, confirmed on X that a French aid worker for Unicef had been killed in the strike. He urged “respect for humanitarian law and for the personnel who are on the ground and committed to saving lives”.

A Unicef worker outside a home where a French humanitarian worker was killed in a drone strike. Photograph: Marie Jeanne Munyerenkana/EPA

Images on social media show responders putting out fire on the upper floor of a two-storey house with a damaged roof.

Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, was the site of deadly fighting last January when M23 rebels stormed the city in an attempt to make territorial gains in the region. Up to 2,000 people were killed.

The Rwanda-backed M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting Congolese forces in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. It says its objective is to safeguard the interests of the Congolese Tutsi and other minorities, including protecting them against Hutu rebel groups who escaped to the DRC after taking part in the 1994 Rwanda genocide that targeted Tutsis.

M23 occupies swathes of eastern DRC and has established parallel governments in the territories it controls.

Fighting has continued in the region despite a US-brokered peace agreement signed in December between the Congolese and Rwandan governments.

Last week, the US imposed sanctions ‌on the Rwandan army and four of its senior officials, accusing them of “supporting, training, and fighting” alongside M23.

Wednesday’s drone attack indicates shifting dynamics in the conflict through the increasing use of drone warfare by both parties.

Two weeks ago an army drone attack in Rubaya, an important M23-controlled coltan mining town, killed the group’s military spokesperson, Willy Ngoma, and several other leaders.

Last week, M23 claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting Kisangani airport in Tshopo province in the country’s east.