AP Photo

The fall on Tuesday of Goma in eastern Congo to rebel forces is another sad milestone in the giant, poverty-striken country’s never-ending internal warring. The success of the M23 military group, numbering perhaps no more than 1,500 fighters but with an abysmal human rights record, in pushing back the Congolese army reflects that army’s chronic weakness and disorganisation, mirroring that of President Laurent Kabila’s dysfunctional government in Kinshasa, some 1,600 kilometres away.