The M23 rebels backed by Rwanda who at the end of January captured rubber, the largest city in the east of the Congo, have been moving towards the second largest city in the area, Bukavu.
The last combat is part of a great escalation of a conflict about the power, identity and resources dating from the Rwanda genocide of the 1990s and the fall of the Mobutu Sese Seko dictator in the country, known as Zaire.
In his last conflagration, it is believed that hundreds of thousands of people were killed since 2012 and now more than one million moved.
What is happening on the ground?
After taking rubber, the rebels pressed south to Bukavu, capital of the province of southern Kivu. On Friday they had control of Kavumu's strategic airport that serves Bukavu.
Insurgents have intended to demonstrate that they can restore order and govern in rubber.
There have been more chaotic scenes and looting and rape reports near the front line when M23 faces the Congolese army and its allies, including burundian troops.
The UN Refugee Agency expressed concern on Friday in the “deterioration quickly” situation, saying that the war had left around 350,000 people displaced without a roof on their heads.
The participation of Burundian and Ruandesas troops in the field has added fears that fighting can become a regional conflict similar to two devastating wars in the region between 1996 and 2003 that cost millions of lives.
Reuters reported this week that South Africa has sent additional troops and military teams to Congo in recent days after 14 of their soldiers died in the fight with M23 last month.
M23, which refers to an agreement of March 23, 2009 that ended a revolt prior to Tutsi in the east of the Congo, is the last group of ethnic insurgents led by Tutsi to take weapons against the Congolese forces.
He launched the current rebellion in 2022.
The group accused the Congo Government of not complying with the peace agreement and completely integrate Congolese tutsis into the Army and Administration.
It also promises to defend Tutsi interests, particularly against Hutu ethnic militias as the democratic forces for the liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The FDLR was founded by Hutus, who fled from Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide that killed about one million tutsis and moderate Hutus.
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For more than a year, M23 has controlled the Mining region of Coltan de Rubaya de Congo, generating approximately $ 800,000 per month through a production tax, according to the United Nations.
Coltan is used in the production of smartphones and other equipment.
The propagation of the group in new territories in recent weeks gives a margin to acquire more mining income, analysts say.
The vast mineral reserves of the Congo, which are concentrated in the east, also play in conflict.
Congo is the main world producer of Tantalum and Cobalt, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones. It is also the third world copper producer and the home of important deposits in Coltan, Lithium, Tin, Tungsten, Tantalum and Gold.
Despite this, Congo is the most dependent country in the world.
Humanitarian operations last year were 70 percent financed by Washington, He took great success Since the president of the United States, Donald Trump, imposed a pause in foreign aid last month.
The Congo Government, UN officials and Western powers, including the United States, have accused Congo Randanda to feed the conflict, displaying thousands of their own troops and heavy weapons on Congolese soil in support of M23.
The accusations are based on a 2022 report by a group of UN experts who said it had “solid evidence” that Rwanda troops had been fighting along with the M23 rebels.
The government of the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who denies having supported the rebels, says he has taken what calls defensive measures and accuses the Congo of the struggles along with the FDLR, which has attacked Tutsis in both countries.
Rwanda has a long history of military intervention within the Congo.
It and Uganda invaded in 1996 and 1998, claiming that they were defending themselves against groups of local militias and chasing the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
African leaders have tried to boost negotiations to calm the crisis, but so far they have not progressed much.
A joint summit of Eastern and South Africa blocks last weekend urged all parties, including M23 to hold direct conversations.
The government has repeatedly refused to speak directly with M23.
“For us it is a terrorist organization, and we do not talk to terrorist organizations,” said President Felix Tshisekedi at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
The crisis was expected to be a prominent agenda article at the Annual Summit of the African Union in Addis Abeba from February 15 to 6.
Tshisekedi had planned to attend, but a presidential spokesman told Reuters on Friday that he would fly from Germany to Kinshasa and that Congo's prime minister would represent Congo at the summit.
What are peace forces doing?
The UN Peace Forces have been supporting the efforts of the Congolese army to stop the M23 as part of the stabilization mission of the United Nations Organization in the mandate of the years of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco) to counteract to the many active rebel groups in the east of the Congo.
An agreed withdrawal of the mission of the Congo stopped last year due to the deterioration of the security situation.
As of December, there were almost 11,000 peace forces on the ground, mainly in the east.
Since the rubber fall, the mission has evacuated part of its staff and families.
Its base has received a large number of people looking for refuge, including government and army officials and several elements, including the combatants of the pro -global Wazalendo militia that have delivered their weapons.
The South Development Community of 16 members (SADC), which extended its military mission in the Congo at the end of last year to help the Congolese army to fight the rebels, continues instead, but has suffered losses since the beginning of 2025.
Private military contractors who were hired by the Congolese government to help in the fight against M23 and to train the troops have also surrendered.
Burundian troops have been helping Congo fight against M23.
The Burundi government has sent thousands of soldiers, who are now concentrated in southern Kivu.
They were among the forces that defended Kavumu airport before falling.