Rwanda-backed rebels who captured eastern Congo’s major city of Goma have targeted relatives of fleeing Congolese soldiers.

It’s believed more than 150 women prisoners were killed in the fire which broke out. An unknown number of children also died. Warning: this pod contains description of violence from the beginning.

I fled the fighting in Bweremana between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo [FARDC] and the M23 armed group. I saw how a whole family was [wiped out] when a bomb exploded,” says Viviane Muteule,

About 200 wounded and sick soldiers from the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC) are apparently on their way out of Goma in the eastern DRC after weeks of negotiations with M23 rebels.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) heard this week “a parallel administration” seemingly set up by the Congo River Alliance (CRA) is running Goma following the M23 (Mouvement du 23 Mars) takeover of the North Kivu capital late last month.

The armed group, backed by several thousand Rwandan soldiers, has taken the capital of South Kivu province. It continues to advance, despite calls for a ceasefire from the African Union and threats of sanctions.

Goma is a humanitarian relief hub for all of eastern DRC, and was the epicentre of a vast crisis before it fell. It hosted nearly one million people displaced by earlier waves of the M23 conflict – who survived in sprawling camps of tarpaulin shelters.

Delcat Idengo, well-known for his critical songs, died after releasing a track condemning the city's rebel occupation.

Thousands of people affected by the fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are leaving displacement sites in and around Goma for safer areas, the UN humanitarian affairs office OCHA reported on Tuesday.

On Jan. 29, after an all-out urban warfare battle that killed and injured thousands of people, mostly civilians, Goma, a large city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),

Rwanda-backed M23 Rally in Goma as Tshisekedi, Kagame to Attend Summit | Firstpost Africa In DR Congo, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels continue their advance after violating a ceasefire they declared unilaterally.