Rwanda-backed M23 advances in DRC as volunteers rally to fight back

Rwandan-backed M23 advances in DR Congo, sparking international concern over escalating conflict and humanitarian crisis.

The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 moved south as it closed in on a key military airport in DR Congo, with queues of young men volunteering to defend a provincial capital on Friday.

The group captured most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier this week and has vowed to march all the way to the capital Kinshasa.

The weeks-long offensive has marked a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen conflict involving dozens of armed groups claim the lives of an estimated six million people over three decades.

Rwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but is accused of seeking to profit from the region's reserves of minerals used in global electronics.

The crisis has rattled the continent and international observers, with a southern African regional bloc holding an emergency summit in Zimbabwe's capital Harare on Friday.

M23 fighters are now moving south, with local sources telling AFP on Thursday that fighting was concentrated some 30 km from the city of Kavumu.

The city has a strategic military airfield and is where the Congolese army has laid down its defensive line just 40 km north of South Kivu's provincial capital Bukavu.