M23 has made significant territorial gains in recent weeks, encircling Goma, which has around two million people and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
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Hundreds of injured men, women and children have been injured and taken to hospitals in and around Goma as fighting has intensified between the M23 and government troops.
Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed as they also fought with M23, and six more were injured the U.N. said, as the rebels close in on the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich eastern region.
M23 has made significant territorial gains in recent weeks, encircling Goma, which has around two million people and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
The peacekeepers were wounded during clashes with the rebels over the past two days in the town of Sake, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo, said in a statement on Friday.
On Thursday, the rebels took control of the town, which is only 27 kilometres west of Goma and one of the last main routes into the provincial capital still under government control, according to the U.N. chief.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich east of the country.
The rebels also scored a victory by killing the governor of North Kivu province, Maj. Gen Peter Cirimwami. He had led army operations in the restive North Kivu and was visiting troops on the front line in Kasengezi, around 13 kilometres from Goma, when he was injured on Thursday.
He later died in hospital, officials said.
Decades of conflict along the border with Rwanda has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
The rebel group seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.
Since 2021, DR Congo’s government and allied forces, including Burundian troops and U.N. troops, have been keeping M23 away from Goma.
DR Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which is mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago.
Rwanda’s government denies the claim, but last year acknowledged that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border.
U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
The M23 advance in eastern Congo has displaced more than 400,000 people since the beginning of the year, according to the U.N. refugee agency, exacerbating “desperate conditions” in severely overcrowded displacement centres in and around Goma and triggering an increase in cholera cases.