The United Nations says at least 700 people have been killed in an intense fighting in Juma, the largest city in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, since Sunday.
UN spokesman Stefan Dujarrick said 2,800 people were injured, as the M23 rebels – supported by Rwanda – seized the capital of the northern province of Kivu.
It has been reported that the rebels were moving south towards Bocafo, the capital of southern Kivu.
The conflict in the eastern Congo goes back to the 1990s, but it rapidly escalated in recent weeks.
The M23, which consists of ethnic totsi, says they are fighting for minority rights, while the government of Dr. Kongo says that Rwanda -backed rebels are seeking to control the wide metal wealth in the eastern region.
On Friday, Dujarrick said that the losses numbers came from an evaluation conducted by the World Health Organization and its partners, along with the government of Dr. Kongo, between Sunday and Thursday.
The United Nations spokesman also warned that the death toll would rise.
In an attempt to stop M23, Dr. Kongo's army created a defensive line on the road between Goma and Bukavu, according to the news agency of Agence France -Presse.
Hundreds of civilians have been recruited to defend Bocafo.
A young man told AFP: “I am ready to die for my country.”
Jean -Jacques Borusi Sadiki, the governor of South Kevo – M23 – told Reuters news agency that the government army and its allies hinder the rebels, although this claim was not independently verified.
Earlier this week, M23 pledged to continue his attack until he arrived in the capital Kinshasa, about 2,600 km (1600 miles) to the west.
The BBC, the BBC, told the Tersa Kayikamba Wagner, the BBC, the BBC was illegally occupying her country and trying to organize regime change.
Wagner said that the international community had allowed Rwandi Paul Kajami contracts for contracts and failed to hold him accountable for violating international law.
A spokeswoman for the Rwanda government, Jewende McCulo, denied this, saying that the country's forces were deployed only to prevent the conflict to its territory.
“We are not interested in the war, and we are not interested in annexation, and we are not interested in changing the system,” McCulo told the BBC.
Last year, United Nations experts estimated that Rwanda had between 3000 and 4000 soldiers working alongside the M23 in the east of Dr Conjo.
On Friday, the regional bloc of the South Africa Development Society (SADC) announced its support for Dr. Kongo at the Crisis Summit in Zimbabwe.
In a statement, the group of 16 members has restored “affirming its commitment and fixed commitment to continuing the support of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in its endeavor to protect its independence and regional safety and safety.”
SADC has sent peacekeepers, especially from South Africa, to Dr. Congo to armed groups such as M23 and the restoration of peace in the mineral -rich area after decades of turmoil.
Sixteen soldiers from South African countries were killed in clashes with M23 around Guma last week.
The fighting also worsened the humanitarian crisis in the eastern Congo.
Shelli Thakal, of the United Nations World Food Program, said that the city's residents are running out of food, clean water and medical supplies.
“The supply chain has already been strangled if you are thinking about reaching the ground, reaching the air, and when everything is closed,” she told AFP.
Since the beginning of 2025, more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Dr. Kongo is the second largest country in Africa – about two -thirds of the size of Western Europe – and it limits nine different countries.
Previous conflicts in the country are equivalent to the 1990s in many neighbors called global wars of Africa.
