The M23 has made significant territorial gains in recent weeks, encircling Goma, which has a population of around two million and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
Hundreds of men, women and children have been injured and taken to hospitals in and around Goma following intensified fighting between M23 and government troops in eastern DRC.
The M23 (March 23 Movement) is made up of former rebels integrated into the Congolese army after a peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009 with Kinshasa.
Nine United Nations peacekeepers were also injured in the fighting, the UN said, as the rebels are approaching the city of Goma and its two million inhabitants, in a region rich in minerals.
The peacekeepers were injured in clashes with rebels over the past two days in the town of Sake, the UN peacekeeping force in Congo said in a statement on Friday.
On Thursday, rebels took control of the town, which is just 27 kilometers west of Goma and is one of the last main roads to the provincial capital still under government control, according to the head of the UN.
The rebels also scored a victory by killing the governor of North Kivu province, Major General Peter Cirimwami. The latter had led army operations in the restive North Kivu region and was visiting troops on the front line in Kasengezi, about 13 kilometers from Goma, when he was injured on Thursday.
He died at the hospital, according to authorities.
Decades of conflict along the border with Rwanda have created one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
The rebel group already briefly seized Goma in 2012.
Since 2021, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and allied forces, including Burundian troops and UN troops, have kept the M23 out of the city.
The DRC, the United States and UN experts accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, made up mainly of members of the Tutsi ethnic group who split from the Congolese army more than a decade ago.
The Rwandan government denies the accusations, but acknowledged last year that it had troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to ensure its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border.
UN experts estimate that there are up to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers in Congo.
The advance of the M23 in eastern Congo displaced more than 400,000 people since the start of the year, according to the United Nations refugee agency, exacerbating the “desperate conditions” in overcrowded displacement centers in and around Goma and causing an increase in cholera cases.
