Goma&

The council urged Rwanda and the DRC to return to talks to achieve peace and address issues related to the presence of Rwanda Defence Forces in the eastern Congo.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have quickly gained ground this month in DRC's conflict-riven eastern borderlands and launched an assault on Goma.

Ruto revealed that he had spoken with both DRC President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame to defuse the situation.

The United Nations said it had started temporarily relocating its non-essential staff from Goma due to the deteriorating security situation.

Congolese forces repelled an offensive on the city overnight by maintaining a defensive line, a Congolese military source said.

The M23 rebels have been making advances towards Goma in recent months, exacerbating the security and humanitarian crisis in the region.

The group further accused MONUSCO of collaborating with "genocidal groups" and launching attacks on densely populated areas and M23 positions.

The boat capsized around 700 metres from port and the causes of the accident are being investigated, he said in a statement.

In eastern Congo, people are trapped between relentless fighting in their villages and overcrowded camps with scarce food and rampant mpox. Survival is a daily struggle in the conflict-ridden region.

Given the dire humanitarian conditions of the displaced and local populations, the truce is a most welcome intervention.

At least nine people, including seven children, were killed in the Friday, May 3, strike.

US strongly condemned the attack that claimed nine lives on May 3 this year.

The head of the Lac Vert district where the incident occurred, Dedesi Mitima, told Reuters he had seen the bodies of seven children and two men at the camp.

Three other TPDF soldiers are nursing serious injuries from the attack, according to SADC. 

The M23, which has captured swathes of territory in North Kivu province since 2021, is one of several militias holding sway over much of the region despite the presence of peacekeepers.

Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into miserable displacement camps around the city, hastily erected on fields of mud.