38 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The fall of Goma in 2025 did not come as a surprise. For months, the M23 insurgency had been tightening its grip on eastern Congo, seizing large portions of North and South Kivu provinces and slowly, methodically encircling the city. By the end of 2024, Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and the economic and political heart of the Great Lakes region, was surrounded. As the new U.S. administration prepared to assume office, M23 seized the opportunity and took the city. For the international community, it was a red line crossed. For the people and government in Kinshasa, a thousand miles to the west, it was a humiliation. The easiest option was to deflect blame to the international community. Protests were called for January 28. U.S. Embassy Kinshasa issued advisories to all staff that unrest was possible. By the early morning hours on that day, it was already clear that whatever was coming would be far worse than anticipated. Staff traveling to work were told to turn around. Those already at embassy or USAID facilities were instructed to shelter in place. Children on their way to school were sent back home. My wife, Angelique, and I sheltered at our residence, the USAID mission director’s house in the Gombe district of Kinshasa. Our compound shared a wall with a commercial building that several years prior had housed the Rwandan embassy, but that embassy and its staff had long since departed. It did not matter. By 7:30 in the morning, crowds had gathered in front of that building and throughout the neighborhood, chanting, throwing rocks, and burning tires in the street. By 8 a.m., we could hear As administration officials were busy dismantling USAID back in Washington, one USAID family was under attack in DR Congo, their home overrun by rioters. BY JOHN DUNLOP John Dunlop was the USAID mission director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central Africa region when this story took place. He began his Foreign Service career as a health officer and has served in multiple countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Madagascar, Jordan, Iraq (two tours), and Afghanistan. He is a two-time recipient of the State Department Award for Heroism. Dunlop retired from USAID in September 2025 as a minister counselor. THEY LEFT NOTHING FOCUS A WORLD WITHOUT
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