M23 fighters advanced on several fronts in DR Congo’s volatile east Friday as the UN Security Council for the first time called on Rwanda to stop backing the armed group and halt the bloodshed.

The M23 movement, supported by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to UN experts, now controls large swaths of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a troubled region rich in natural resources.

Its rapid advance has sent thousands fleeing. Fighters took control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu last Sunday, weeks after capturing Goma, the capital of North Kivu and the main city in the country’s east.

Friday’s unanimously adopted UN Security Council resolution “strongly condemns the ongoing offensive and advances of the M23 in North-Kivu and South Kivu with the support of the Rwanda Defense Forces.”

It also “calls on the Rwanda Defence Forces to cease support to the M23 and immediately withdraw from DRC territory without preconditions.”

https://guardian.ng/news/world/m23-pushes-deeper-in-east-drc-un-urges-rwanda-forces-to-leave/