A regional summit has called for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, and the president of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, joined a summit in Tanzania on Saturday, where African leaders said they were deeply concerned by the crisis.
The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.
The group took the strategic city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, last week and is pushing into neighbouring South Kivu in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.
On Saturday fighting was ongoing about 40 miles (60km) from South Kivu’s provincial capital, Bakuvu, local and security sources told Agence-France Presse.
Regional leaders gathered for the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam that brought together the eight countries of the East African Community (EAC) and the 16-member Southern African Development Community.
Kagame attended in person, while Tshisekedi joined via video call.
“We call on all parties to actualise the ceasefire, and specifically on the M23 to halt further advancement and the armed forces of DRC to cease all retaliatory measures,” said the Kenyan president, William Ruto, the current chair of the EAC, in opening remarks.
Since the M23 re-emerged in 2021, peace talks have failed and multiple ceasefires have collapsed. Rwanda denies military support for the M23.
But a UN report said last year Rwanda had about 4,000 troops in the DRC and profited from smuggling out of the country vast amounts of gold and coltan – a mineral vital for phones and laptops.
Rwanda has accused the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The summit comes amid reports the M23 is closing in on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.
There have also been reports of panic in the provincial capital Bukavu as residents have boarded up shops and sought to escape.
“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.
The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, said: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come for the people of the eastern DRC but also beyond the country’s borders.”
Türk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 wounded since M23 entered Goma on 26 January, and final tolls were likely to be much higher. He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang-rape and sexual slavery”.
M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma. The group plans to infiltrate the national capital, Kinshasa, situated about 1,000 miles away.
The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats. The M23 offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.
