San Francisco Frontiers - Rwanda-backed fighters advance in DR Congo

The weeks-long advance by the M23 armed group prompted calls from mediator Angola for urgent talks, as well rising international criticism and warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.

DR Congo has called on the world to stop the M23's march across the vast central African country's mineral-rich east, wracked by decades of conflict that can be partly traced back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Congolese army had yet to make a statement about a new advance by the M23 in South Kivu province, reported to AFP by local sources.

After days of intense clashes, calm returned to Goma, provincial capital of North Kivu, on Wednesday as residents started venturing from their homes.

"Today we are not afraid," Goma resident Jean de Dieu told AFP by telephone from the city of one million people wedged between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border.

"There is hunger in Goma. We have to go get water from the lake and we have no medicine," said another resident, Kahindo Sifa.

- DRC urged to talk with M23 -

Despite international pressure to end the crisis, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi declined to attend talks with his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Wednesday.

At a videoconference summit of the East African Community, the regional bloc's heads state "called for peaceful settlement of the conflicts", it said in a statement.

It "strongly urged the government of the DRC to directly engage with all stakeholders, including the M23 and other armed groups that have grievances".

Angola, which mediated a failed attempt at talks last month before M23 launched its offensive, called for the Congolese and Rwandan leaders to meet urgently in Luanda.

Tshisekedi arrived there on Wednesday for talks about next steps, a statement from the Angolan presidency said.

M23 fighters and Rwandan troops entered Goma on Sunday, progressively seizing the city's airport and other sites of the key mineral trading hub.

On Wednesday, the fighters faced no resistance in seizing the areas of Kiniezire and Mukwidja in neighbouring South Kivu, a local civil society leader and residents said.

The latest fighting has heightened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, according to the United Nations.

Three days of clashes in Goma have left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally from the city's overflowing hospitals.

- 'Cut off from world' -

After many Congolese soldiers fled or were captured, the only forces in downtown Goma on Wednesday were M23 fighters or Rwandan soldiers, some firing guns into the air, AFP reporters said.

A long line of hundreds of Congolese soldiers and pro-Kinshasa militiamen, unarmed and wearing white headbands, were marched through the city's centre by M23 fighters, a security source said.

There was also widespread looting in the city, AFP journalists observed.

Student Merdi Kambelenge told AFP that the situation had "already stabilised" but said the lack of electricity meant "we're cut off from the world".

On the other side of the country, furious protesters in the capital Kinshasa on Tuesday attacked the embassies of various nations they accused of not stepping in to halt the chaos in the east.

After protesters burnt tyres in the streets and looted supermarkets, the authorities banned all further protests in the capital, which remained calm on Wednesday.

The United States, which was among the nations whose embassy was targeted, ordered non-emergency staff and their families to leave the country.

DR Congo's former colonial ruler Belgium also warned its citizens against travelling to the country, while Brussels Airlines scrapped flights to Kinshasa.

- M23 advance 'will continue' -

The UN, US, China and European Union have all called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the region.

But Rwanda's ambassador-at-large for the Great Lakes region Vincent Karega told AFP the M23 advance "will continue".

It was possible the fighters could push beyond the country's east -- even to Kinshasa, Karega added.

DR Congo has gold and other minerals such as cobalt, coltan, tantalum and tin used in batteries and electronics worldwide.

Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of waging the offensive to profit from the region's mineral wealth -- a claim backed by UN experts who say Kigali has thousands of troops in its neighbour and "de facto control" over the M23.

Kagame has never admitted military involvement, saying Rwanda's aim is to destroy a DR Congo-based armed group, the FDLR, created by former Hutu leaders who massacred Tutsis during the genocide.

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C.Lewis--SFF