Rwandan-backed M23 rebels advanced on 16 February into the center of Bukavu, the second-largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, meeting little resistance from government troops, witnesses and the armed group said. Bukavu, a city of about 1.3 million people, lies 63 miles south of Goma, the region’s largest city that was taken by the rebels last month. M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgent groups that have operated in the mineral-rich eastern DRC since a 2003 deal was meant to end wars that had killed 6 million people, mostly from hunger and disease. The Congolese government and several UN reports say Rwanda is using the group as a means to extract and then export valuable minerals for use in products such as mobile phones
Rwandan-backed M23 rebels enter Bukavu in eastern DRC
