Fighting has escalated sharply in recent weeks in eastern Congo, where rebels have seized key towns and are closing in on the city of Goma, the government’s last stronghold in the North Kivu province,

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed they captured eastern Congo’s largest city, Goma, early Monday, as the United Nations described a “mass panic” among its 2 million people and Congo’s government said the rebel advance was a “declaration of war.

The AFC/M23 rebels early Monday, January 27, announced that they captured Goma, the capital of eastern DR Congo's North Kivu Province. The rebels announced the city's capture in a statement minutes before a 48-hour deadline imposed by the group for the Congolese army to surrender their weapons expired.