According to officials, M23 rebels engaged in fighting with soldiers and rival militias on Thursday in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They also reportedly cut off a crucial road in the unrest-plagued area.
Since last year, the M23 has made significant gains in the North Kivu province and has moved closer to Goma, the capital.
Before being forced out the following year, the organisation originally shot to fame in 2012 when it overran a city of more than a million people.
Respected violence watchdog Kivu Security Tracker said on Wednesday that the M23 was moving towards the Masisi region in North Kivu.
It said that the Tutsi-led mob had blocked the route connecting the Masisi town of Kitchanga with Goma.
The road had been blocked, local police and government representatives in the region confirmed to Agence France-Presse on Thursday.
The primary road heading north out of the city has been blocked since an earlier M23 advance, making the artery crucial for servicing Goma.
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A resident of Masisi’s Kilolirwe village claimed that fighting with the rebels was also taking place near Kitchanga.
There are still conflicts there, according to an army official who wished to remain anonymous.
The APCLS militia’s spokesperson, Heritier Ndangendange, described the situation in Kitchanga as tense but insisted that the APCLS and its allies still had sway there.
After the M23 was ordered by regional mediation attempts to leave the land it occupies, new skirmishes have broken out.
Uhuru Kenyatta, a former president of Kenya and current mediator for the East African Community, issued a dire warning on Wednesday.
Fighting has brought about a humanitarian disaster and a dispute between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Rwanda.
Rwanda is accused of assisting the M23 by the Kinshasa government, which Kigali refutes.
The M23 is one of the numerous armed organisations that prowl the mineral-rich eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Many are the result of two world wars that ravaged the region and cost millions of lives at the end of the 20th century.
