Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has vowed “a vigorous and coordinated response” against a rebel alliance that has besieged swaths of the nation’s mineral-rich east and forced hundreds of local troops and foreign mercenaries to surrender.

The scene is the result of the invasion of Goma on January 27th by M23, an armed group under the control of Rwanda, Congo’s neighbour, which abuts the city. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, has escalated a crisis whose origins go back decades.

Residents of the besieged city of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, say they are gripped by fear as gunshots continue to ring out around their homes, days after rebel forces claimed they had taken over.

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed on Monday they captured eastern Congo’s strategic city of Goma, the hub of a region containing trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that remains largely untapped.

Economic rivalry and ethnic tensions lay at the center of the long-simmering conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the strategically located city of Goma has recently fallen to r

Congo's leader has called on young people to enlist in the army to help fight Rwanda-backed rebels attempting to seize more territory in the country's conflict-battered east.

The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have released captured Romanian mercenaries who were fighting with the Congolese army. As they passed a border, they were chastised by Willy Ngoma, who tapped them mockingly one by one.

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed they captured eastern Congo’s strategic city of Goma, the hub of a region containing trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that remains largely untapped, the Associated Press reported.

Bodies are lying on the streets. Medical staff in overwhelmed hospitals are treating hundreds of wounded civilians against the backdrop of gunfire and mortar fire.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for a urgent cease-fire in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo saying Washington was "deeply troubled" by a recent escalation in the fighting.

Residents in eastern Congo’s largest city of Goma are fleeing after Rwanda-backed rebels claimed to have captured the regional hub from Congolese forces.