Islamabad
\nISLAMABAD: Following the recent escalation of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), around 150 Pakistanis were stranded in the city of Goma, confirmed the Foreign Office on Thursday.
\nIn a statement, FO Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that with the active engagement of Pakistan\u2019s high commissioner in Kigali, the Rwandan authorities have allowed the entry of stranded Pakistanis into Rwanda.
\n\u201cSo far around 75 Pakistanis have moved to Rwanda,\u201d he added.
\nM23 rebels captured Goma, a city of two million people and capital of North Kivu province, on Monday.
\nThe rebels advanced south on Wednesday in an apparent attempt to expand their area of control. They marched along the western side of Lake Kivu and neared Kavumu, where Bukavu\u2019s airport is located.
\nIn the statement, the spokesperson said that the high commission in Kigali arranged accommodation and food for the affected Pakistanis.
\nThe high commission is also reaching out to the Pakistani community to identify and reach out to any other citizen in difficulty, Shafqat added.
\n\u201cThere is likelihood of more Pakistanis crossing over to Rwanda in the coming days,\u201d he said, adding that the high commission staff was in contact with every individual who had asked for assistance and help. Furthermore, the diplomatic staff was also reaching out to Pakistanis in the border city of Bukavu, he added.
\nThe group\u2019s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, is a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen decades of conflict involving multiple armed groups.
\nRwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but is accused of seeking to profit from the region\u2019s reserves of minerals used in global electronics.
\n\u201cWe will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa,\u201d Corneille Nangaa, head of a coalition of groups including the M23, told reporters in Goma.
\n\u201cWe are in Goma and we will not leave\u2026 for as long as the questions for which we took up arms have not been answered,\u201d he said.
\nAfter days of intense clashes that left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally, some Goma residents on Thursday ventured out to take stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad ISLAMABAD: Following the recent escalation of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), around 150 Pakistanis were stranded in the city of Goma, confirmed the Foreign Office on Thursday. In a statement, FO Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that with the active engagement of Pakistan\u2019s high commissioner in Kigali, the Rwandan authorities have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":76348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76349,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76334\/revisions\/76349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}