Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced on the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the border into neighbouring Burundi.

The armed group's fighters were just a few kilometres north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP, as the United States and European powers urged the Rwandan military and its M23 allies to "immediately halt" their offensive and for Rwandan troops to withdraw from the eastern DRC.

The renewed violence undermined an agreement aiming to end the long-running conflict in the mineral-rich region brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict, w

See Full Page