Sawt Falasteen - DR Congo leader says troops mounting 'vigorous' response to M23

The weeks-long march of the M23 armed group, which has captured vast swathes of eastern DRC including most of the key city of Goma, has prompted calls for crisis talks and warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.

DRC's mineral-rich east has been wracked by decades of conflict involving scores of armed groups that can be partly traced back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

In his first remarks since the latest crisis began, Tshisekedi said late Wednesday that a "vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors is underway".

The "silence and inaction" of the international community were an "affront" in the face of an "unprecedented worsening of the security situation", he said in a televised address.

He warned the advance of Rwanda-backed fighters could lead "straight to an escalation" in the broader Great Lakes region.

It followed local sources telling AFP that Kigali-backed fighters had seized two districts in South Kivu.

The Congolese army had yet to make a statement about the M23's fresh advances.

After days of intense clashes that left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally from overflowing hospitals, calm returned to Goma 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.

- 'Peaceful settlement' urged -

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

Following the virtual summit, the regional East African Community bloc "called for peaceful settlement of the conflicts", urging the DRC to "directly engage with all stakeholders, including the M23".

In a late night tweet, Kagame warned South African President Cyril Ramaphosa -- who tweeted condolences following the death of 13 South Africans in DRC -- his country was "in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator."

The troops were part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), which Kagame said had "no place in this situation".

Angola, which mediated failed talks last month, has also called for the Congolese and Rwandan leaders to meet urgently in Luanda, and said Wednesday that Tshisekedi had arrived in the city.

The 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.

- 'Cut off from world' -

On Sunday M23 fighters and Rwandan troops entered Goma city, seizing the key mineral trading hub's airport, with AFP reporters saying they were only forces remaining in the city's downtown.

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, AFP journalists observed.

Student Merdi Kambelenge told AFP while the situation had "stabilised", the lack of electricity meant "we're cut off from the world".

Earlier in the week, furious protesters in capital Kinshasa attacked various embassies -- accusing them of not stepping in to halt the chaos in the east. Calm was restored after officials banned all further demonstrations.

- 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, he added.

DRC is rich in 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 DRC-based armed group, the FDLR, created by former Hutu leaders who massacred Tutsis during the genocide.

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H.Jarrar--SF-PST