Shortly after Goma and Bukavu were liberated by M23, Kinshasa tried to strangle their economies. But the cities have shown remarkable resilience.
One year later, in Goma for example, the commercial activities have resumed, exchanges have intensified, and service networks have reorganized with surprising efficiency.
Goma itself has lived under a deliberate financial squeeze by Kinshasa. Banking systems were shut down, formal channels of finance were frozen, and the flow of funds to key institutions such as universities, hospitals, and public services was cut off.
The intention was straightforward: make daily life unbearable and force the city, it’s dwellers into submission and possibly and implosion would force the liberators out. Obviously that was a miscalculation by Tshisekedi regime.
Separated from the national banking system, under the guidance of M23 leaders local economies adapted out of necessity. Informal financial networks expanded, community support mechanisms reemerged, and new ways of exchanging goods and services took hold. Markets remained open. Trade continued. Supply chains adjusted, while cross border commerce played a growing role in keeping essential goods moving.
Health facilities, many of them once reliant on central government transfers, found ways to keep operating. Through local initiatives and community backed management, hospitals and clinics continued to provide care. Universities and schools, starved of state funding, did not shut their doors. Teaching and learning persisted, reflecting a collective refusal to sacrifice an entire generation to political pressure.
This resilience was made possible by a calmer and more predictable security environment provided by the new M23 administration. When people can move freely, rules are clear, and authority is exercised without arbitrariness, economic life finds room to function, even under constraint.
The embargo, meant to paralyze, instead exposed a deeper reality. Centralized control over finance is not the only path to social and economic survival. In Goma and Bukavu, scarcity forced innovation. Governance adjusted, local accountability strengthened, and institutions learned to operate with what was available.
One year on, the two cities stand not as examples of isolation, but of endurance. Banks were closed, funds were frozen, and national support was withdrawn, yet daily life continued, services functioned, and social cohesion held.
The lesson is a simple one. Financial pressure can disrupt systems, but it does not automatically break societies. When security is ensured, administration is understandable, and leadership is rooted locally, resilience becomes a lived experience.
Under economic siege, Goma and Bukavu did not collapse. They adapted, endured, and carried on and history clearly has a way of remembering such moments.