Local sources said Kigali-backed fighters were advancing on a new front and had seized two districts in South Kivu province, after the rebel group’s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels triggered the ongoing hostilities by launching an offensive north of Goma, on Oct. 26, 2023, in violation of the Luanda process.

The United States urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to consider measures to halt an offensive by Rwandan troops and M23 rebel forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a conflict there escalates.

Congolese forces were losing control of the city of Goma on Wednesday after rebel groups backed by Rwanda took over the airport and shared plans to set up a new administration.

Troops from Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have been firing at each other across their shared border in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, where Rwandan-backed rebels launched an offensive,

There was gunfire Tuesday in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma, as the United Nations warned of a worrying humanitarian situation amid clashes between Congolese soldiers and Rwandan-backed rebels who attacked the area and claimed to be in control.

Congo has severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda as fighting between Rwanda-backed rebels and government forces rages around the key eastern city of Goma.

The Rwanda-backed armed group M23 vowed Thursday to "continue the march of liberation" to the DR Congo capital Kinshasa, as its fighters made further advances in the mineral-rich east of the country.

Diplomatic sources say the bloc is facing calls to suspend its wide-ranging minerals agreement with Rwanda amid fears it is inflaming the escalating conflict in eastern DRC. View on euronews

Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo are closing in on a key city in the mineral-rich region aided by neighboring Rwanda’s army, the head of a peacekeeping mission told United Nations Security Council members during an emergency meeting on Sunday.

"Active zones of combat have spread to all quarters of the city, all the neighborhoods of the city," Lemarquis, the deputy U.N. envoy and top U.N. aid official in the DRC, told reporters in New York via video from Kinshasa.