Clashes continue in eastern DRC days after attack on civilians left many dead

Fighting between M23 rebels and pro-government militias was under way on Sunday in Nyabiondo, about 100km north of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), residents said, days after a nearby attack left a heavy civilian death toll, according to the UN and an NGO.

The Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 has seized swathes of mineral-rich eastern DRC since the start of the year.

"M23 has taken Nyabiondo since 11am (9am GMT), following clashes," Kipanda Biiri, an official from the local administrative authority who was fleeing the area, told Reuters.

"The enemy opened a large-scale assault on Nyabiondo this morning," said Telesphore Mitondeke, a civil society rapporteur in Masisi, the area where Nyabiondo is located, referring to M23 rebels.

"For the moment there is shooting from every direction in the centre of Nyabiondo, where the clashes are taking place."

The fighting follows clashes last week between M23 and a government militia in the village of Tambi, about 18km northeast of the town of Masisi, which culminated in an attack overnight on March 5 leaving many civilian casualties, according to the head of a local NGO.

An internal United Nations memo seen by Reuters on Sunday said between 40 and 70 civilians were believed to have been killed in that attack.

Separately on Sunday, a spokesperson for the rebel alliance that includes M23 said on X that one of the pro-government militias that operates in eastern DRC had switched sides and joined its alliance.

The spokesperson for the group that militia had been a part of said in a statement that the rest of the group remained loyal to the DRC government and its army.

M23 rebels say they intend to seize power in DRC's capital Kinshasa. They also accuse DRC's government of not living up to previous peace deals and fully integrating DRC Tutsis into the army and administration.

The group's spread into new mineral-rich territories this year also gives it scope to acquire more mining revenue, analysts say.

In Washington, the state department said in a statement to Reuters on Sunday that the United States was open to exploring critical minerals partnerships with DRC, after a DRC senator contacted US officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal.

DRC is rich in cobalt, lithium and uranium among other minerals.