Gunfire rang out early on Monday across parts of Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, hours after Rwanda-backed rebels said they had seized the city despite the United Nations Security Council's calling for an end to the offensive.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Foreign Minister warned Sunday that an “attack of unprecedented intensity is taking place in plain sight of the world” as rebel forces and allied Rwandan forces entered the outskirts of Goma.

STORY: Rwandan-backed fighters on Sunday closed in on eastern Congo's largest city of Goma……forcing thousands of civilians to flee, and grounding flights from the local airport as government forces battled to stop the rebels from seizing the city.

Gunfire broke out on Sunday night in the centre of the besieged Congolese city Goma after the Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighbouring Rwanda of sending more troops across the

Congolese troops pushed back an attempted overnight advance by Rwanda-backed rebels on the eastern city of Goma, two Congolese army sources said on Saturday, after the sound of nearby heavy bombardment rocked the city in the early hours.

The DR Congo army and M23 fighters clashed outside Goma on Friday as the UK, United States and France urged citizens to leave the main city in the country's volatile east, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly.

Gunshots rang out Sunday night in Goma city centre, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, besieged by a militia with the Rwandan army's backing, according to AFP reporters.

Rwanda denies this. After seizing the town of Minova on Tuesday, M23 fighters have continued their offensive, moving into the town of Sake, around 20 km (12 miles) from Goma. A local administrator ...

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Rwanda-backed rebels claim they have captured Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo. Congo’s government said the rebel advance was a “declaration of war" and the United Nations has described mass panic among Goma's two million residents.

M23 vows to defend Tutsi interests, particularly against ethnic Hutu militias such as the FDLR, which was founded by Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide of more than 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.