A UN armoured personnel carrier burns during clashes with M23 rebels outside Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. But in late 2021 the rebels launched another campaign and swiftly seized control of swathes of territory in North ...

Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo are closing in on a key city in the mineral-rich region aided by neighboring Rwanda’s army, the head of a peacekeeping mission told United Nations Security Council members during an emergency meeting on Sunday.

Congolese rebels and allied Rwandan forces entered the outskirts of Goma on Sunday and the airport in the key eastern city was no longer in use, the top UN official in the country said. Thousands fled the fighting that also killed at least 13 peacekeepers.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where fierce fighting raged as Kigali-backed fighters closed in on

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -Congolese rebels said on Sunday they had taken Goma, the biggest city in the east of the mineral-rich country, after a lightning advance that has forced thousands of people to flee and fuelled concerns of a regional war.

Nine United Nations peacekeepers in eastern Congo sustained injuries during fighting with the M23 armed group, the U.N. said, as the rebels close in on Goma.

Explosions and gunshots were heard in city - home to more than a million people - late on Sunday evening, according to local media reports. A spokesman for rebel group has told the Reuters news agency its forces will seize control of Goma at 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT).

Congo has severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda as fighting between Rwanda-backed rebels and government forces rages around the key eastern city of Goma, leaving at least 13 peacekeepers and foreign soldiers dead and displacing thousands of civilians.

Fighting has escalated sharply in recent weeks in eastern Congo, where rebels have seized key towns and are closing in on the city of Goma, the government’s last stronghold in the North Kivu province,

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed they captured eastern Congo’s largest city, Goma, early Monday, as the United Nations described a “mass panic” among its 2 million people and Congo’s government said the rebel advance was a “declaration of war.

Fighting with M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo left six United Nations peacekeepers dead, UN officials said Saturday.