M23 have captured the key town of Masisi in DR Congo

According to various reports, rebel forces backed by Rwanda have captured the town of Masisi in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is the second town captured by M23 in as many days in the mineral-rich province of North Kivu.

The group has taken control of large swathes of eastern DR Congo since 2021, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Angola tried to mediate the talks between President Felix Tsisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame. But they broke last month.

“We are horrified to learn of the seizure of Masisi center by M23,” Alexis Bahunga, a member of the North Kivu provincial assembly, told AFP.

He said it was “plunging the territory into a serious humanitarian crisis” and called on the government to strengthen the army’s capacity in the region.

One resident told AFP that M23 had held a rally of the town’s residents, saying they had “come to liberate the country”.

The Congolese authorities have yet to comment on the loss of the city.

Masisi, whose population is about 40 thousand people, is the capital of the territory of the same name.

It is about 80 km (50 mi) north of the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma, which the M23 briefly occupied in 2012.

On Friday, the M23 captured the nearby town of Katale.

Last year there were fears that The M23 is moving on Goma againabout a city of two million.

However, there was a lull in fighting after that until early December, when fighting resumed.

In July, Rwanda did not refuse a The UN report said there were about 4,000 soldiers there fighting alongside the M23 in DR Congo.

He accused the Congolese government of not doing enough to resolve decades of conflict in the country’s east. Rwanda has previously claimed that DR Congo authorities are collaborating with some of those responsible for the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.

M23, created as an offshoot of another rebel group, began operating in 2012 ostensibly to protect the Tutsi population in eastern DR Congo, which has long complained of persecution and discrimination.

However, Rwanda’s critics accuse it of using the M23 to loot eastern DR Congo for minerals such as gold, cobalt and tantalum, which are used to make mobile phones and batteries for electric cars.

Last month, the DR Congo said it was suing Apple for using such “blood minerals,” prompting the tech giant to say it has stopped shipping from the country.