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BUKAVU, DR Congo: The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group was threatening another key town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday as the United Nations warned that the risk of violence spreading regionally had “never been higher.”
M23 and Rwandan troops seized the city of Goma last week and are now pushing into the neighboring South Kivu province.
Thousands have died and huge numbers displaced as they have overtaken swathes of the mineral-rich region, routing DRC troops and their allies in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in eastern DRC.
Congolese forces were bracing for an assault on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying its troops, according to security, humanitarian and local sources.
Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where residents were also on edge.
“We see some people starting to flee,” resident Aganze Byamungu told AFP.
A local who spoke on condition of anonymity said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes.
“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they added.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to attend a summit in Tanzania on Saturday as regional powers try to defuse the crisis.
The UN Human Rights Council met in Geneva on Friday to decide on investigating abuses committed in the conflict.
UN rights chief Volker Turk warned “the risk of violence escalating throughout the sub-region has never been higher.
“If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he added.
Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on January 26, and that final tolls would likely be much higher.
He also said his team is “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”
Also on Friday, a Swiss NGO said three local staff were killed in the area this week.
In Goma, where the M23 has already installed its own mayor and authorities, the group convened tens of thousands of people on Thursday for a public meeting of the River Congo Alliance, a political-military coalition that includes the M23.
The head of the alliance, Corneille Nangaa, told the crowd that the group wants to “liberate all of the Congo.”
Young people at the meeting in the city’s packed stadium chanted “Go to Kinshasa!,” the DRC’s capital on the other side of the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.
The DRC issued an international arrest warrant for Nangaa on Wednesday.
Since the M23 resurfaced in late 2021, the DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.
The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.
Previous peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed.
The latest peace summit in Tanzania brings together the eight-country East African Community and 16-member South African Development Community.
It was set to start with a ministerial meeting on Friday, before the arrival of Kagame, Tshisekedi and other regional leaders on Saturday.
A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda has “de facto” control over the M23, alongside some 4,000 of its own troops in the conflict zone.
The report also accused Kigali of profiting from smuggling minerals from the DRC — particularly coltan used in phones and laptops, as well as gold.
Rwanda denies direct involvement and accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court slammed sanctions Friday slapped by US President Donald Trump over its probes targeting America and Israel and pledged to press on with its aim to fight for “justice and hope” around the world.
The United Nations and the European Union also urged Trump on Friday to reverse the decision ordering asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations.
The sanctions could impact the court’s technical and IT operations, including evidence gathering. There are fears victims of alleged atrocities may hesitate to come forward.
Trump signed an executive order Thursday saying the court in The Hague had “abused its power” by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks with the US president on Tuesday.
The ICC said the move sought to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work.”
“The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” it said.
The United Nations said it deeply regretted Trump’s decision and urged him to reverse the move.
“The court should be fully able to undertake its independent work — where a state is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution,” UN human rights office OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP in an email.
“The rule of law remains essential to our collective peace and security. Seeking accountability globally makes the world a safer place for everyone.”
Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU’s 27 member states, wrote on X that the move “undermines the international criminal justice system.”
The European Commission separately expressed “regret,” stressing the ICC’s “key importance in upholding international criminal justice and the fight against impunity.”
The executive order risks “affecting ongoing investigations and proceedings, including as regards Ukraine, impacting years of efforts to ensure accountability around the world,” said a commission spokesman.
The names of the individuals affected by the sanctions were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump had targeted the court’s prosecutor.
Trump’s order said the tribunal had engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel,” referring to ICC probes into alleged war crimes by US service members in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza.
Israel’s foreign minister applauded Trump, calling the court’s actions against Israel illegitimate.
“I strongly commend @POTUS President Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the so-called ‘international criminal court’,” Gideon Saar wrote on X, adding that the ICC’s actions were “immoral and have no legal basis.”
Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.
Following a request by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, judges issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif — whom Israel says is dead.
The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza war, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Netanyahu has accused the court of anti-Semitism.
During his first term, Trump imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC’s then prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials and staff in 2020.
His administration made the move after Gambian-born Bensouda launched an investigation into allegations of war crimes against US soldiers in Afghanistan.
While his order at the time did not name Israel, Trump administration officials said they were also angered by Bensouda’s opening of a probe into the situation in the Palestinian territories in 2019.
President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.
Prosecutor Khan later effectively dropped the US from the Afghan investigation and focused on the Taliban instead.
Biden strongly condemned the “outrageous” warrant against Netanyahu in November.