The rebels take control of the “most dangerous city in the world” while thousands of inhabitants flee | World

A rebel movement claims to have captured rubber, the largest city in the east of the Congo, while terrified residents of neighboring cities flee from the fighting.

The advance occurred despite the fact that the United Nations Security Council (CSNU) urged to end the offensive, amid fears that a long -term regional conflict can become a broader war.

The rebel alliance, called M23 and allegedly supported by Rwanda, has forced thousands of people in the east of the country to leave their homes. Reuters information.

Ruanda has long denied the group.

The UN Security Council met Sunday to discuss the crisis and has asked Randanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) to return to conversations to achieve peace, addressing issues related to the presence of the defense forces of Rwanda in the east of the Congo, as well as the Congolese support to the democratic forces for the liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The United States, France and Great Britain condemned what they said was the support of Kigali – the capital of Rwanda – to the rebel advance.

The declared objective of the M23 is to defend the interests of the tutsis, especially against Hutus ethnic militias such as FDLR.

The CSNU spoke against what he described as “the flagrant current contempt for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the unauthorized presence in the east of the democratic Republic of the Congo of external forces”, without explicitly appointed to m23.

However, they demanded that the forces “retire immediately.”

In a video published in X, the spokesman of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrick Maraya, requested the protection of civilians and warned citizens that the country is “in a war situation.”

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has asked that UN sanctions impose on Rwanda due to lightning progress, while increasing international pressure to end the battle for rubber.

On Sunday, Kenya announced that the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, and the president of Ruanda, Paul Kagame, had agreed to attend conversations in the next two days.

Kenya’s prime minister, William Ruto, president of the East African Community Block, urged both leaders to “attend the call to peace of the peoples of our region and the international community.”

Ruto will meet with heads of state for an emergency meeting on the situation, said an official of the Kenyan Foreign Ministry.

In addition to the current security problems, the city is known for its dangerous volcanic environment.

The Italian volcanologist Dario Tedesco previously described rubber as “the most dangerous city in the world”, due to the nearby Nyiragono active volcano.

Once erupted in 1997, sending lava at a terrifying speed of approximately 60 mph and, although the molten flow solidified before reaching the heart of the city, hundreds of people lost their lives.

Then, in 2002, 15 million cubic meters of lava spilled in the rubber center, destroying 14,000 homes and causing 350,000 citizens to flee terrified.