After capturing Goma, the main city in North Kivu province, last week, the M23 and Rwandan troops launched a new offensive on Wednesday in a neighbouring province. Breaking a ceasefire it had declared unilaterally, the fighters seized the South Kivu mining town of Nyabibwe, about kilometres 60 miles from the regional capital Bukavu. The M23 anti-governmental group had said in declaring the humanitarian ceasefire that it had "no intention of taking control of Bukavu or other localities".
The battle for Goma killed at least 2, people, the United Nations said on Wednesday, in a much higher toll than previously announced. Humanitarian and local sources said on Thursday that Congolese forces were bracing for an assault in the town of Kavumu, which hosts the province's airport and lies about 30 km from Bukavu. Equipment and troops are being evacuated to avoid being captured by the advancing M23 and its Rwandan allies, the sources said.
The fall of Kavumu, the last barrier before Bukavu, would be another stinging setback for the army and government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In more than three years of fighting, the M23's lightning offensive against Goma was a major escalation in the mineral-rich region, scarred by relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups over three decades. Residents of the city of one million people have been told to attend the M23's public meeting in the stadium on Thursday.
Men using loudspeakers went through the streets a day earlier instructing the population that their presence was mandatory, an AFP journalist saw. Several thousand people had already turned up first thing on Thursday morning in front of the stadium and the area's streets were crowded.
Since the M23 resurfaced in late , the DRC army, which has a reputation for being poorly trained and undermined by corruption, has been forced to retreat. Fears the violence could spark a wider conflict have galvanised the international community and mediators such as Angola and Kenya in diplomatic efforts.
