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Local residents and aid workers say a rebel group linked with neighboring Rwanda has seized more territory as fighting intensified in conflict-ridden east Congo.
M23 rebels captured Mushaki village in North Kivu province Friday after more than two days of clashes with government forces and militias, sending people fleeing.
Cameroon’s military says it has killed scores of armed separatists in clashes this month, and at least 15 have surrendered.
The rebels, who vowed to disrupt March senate elections in Cameroon’s western regions, claim to have killed scores of government troops.
Rwanda’s army has said its troops briefly exchanged fire with soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a border post, as tension continues to spike between the neighbours.
In a statement on Wednesday, Kigali said that 12 to 14 Congolese soldiers entered the neutral zone near the western district of Rusizi and opened fire at a Rwandan border post, in “an act of provocation”.
At least 24 people have been killed and 53 wounded amid heavy fighting in the Somali city of Las Anod, after local clan elders declared their intention to cut ties with the breakaway republic of Somaliland and rejoin Somalia.
In a second day of violence, local elders said on Tuesday that electricity and water in the city had been cut off, and a health centre had been attacked with mortars.
DRC’s army confirmed the withdrawal, calling it a tactical move to protect civilians in the face of renewed unrest provoked by the rebel fighters’ reinvigorated offensive.
The rebels took control of Kitshanga late Thursday after capturing several villages on the road linking the town of about 60,000 people to the provincial capital Goma.