Dozens of mpox patients being treated in hospital isolation units in Goma have fled for their lives as violence engulfs the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the WHO said Friday.

Delcat Idengo's music, termed revolutionary by fans, was critical of both the Congolese government and rebel groups A popular musician in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been killed while filming a music video in the conflict-hit eastern town of Goma.

Representatives of Congo's powerful Catholic church met on Wednesday with a rebel leader whose Rwandan-backed M23 forces last month seized Goma, the biggest city in the country's east, and have continued advancing south.

The M23 armed group is advancing on strategic zones in the eastern DRC after taking two key cities, Goma and Bukavu, according to the United Nations on Wednesday. U.N. Security Council members met on Wednesday in hopes of averting the widening of conflict into a regional war.

The DRC illustrates how millions of people in fragile, violent and conflict-affected parts of the world are at risk of disaster.

Defeated soldiers from the Southern Africa Development Community’s (SADC) peace mission were seen leaving Goma by road without their equipment or uniforms.

M23 rebels captured the city of 1.3 million people after it was abandoned by Congolese forces. Bukavu lies 101 kilometers south of Goma, which was captured by the rebels in late January. The M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo's trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that's critical for much of the world's technology.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that about 1 million people have been displaced since the beginning of 2025 from Goma city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) seized by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels.

The crucial ferries were suspended for several days due to fierce fighting between the army and M23 rebels in the region.

Internally displaced people (IDPs) near eastern city of Goma board pirogues on Lake Kivu after leaving the nearby Bulengo IDP camp. They were fleeing renewed fighting between the DRC army and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels n the area.

At the time, one of the worst reported atrocities of the conflict took place – when more than 150 women prisoners and their children were killed in Munzenze Prison - after an intense fire broke out. The UN says most of the women were probably subjected to sexual violence before they died.

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who in late January captured Goma, the biggest city in eastern Congo, have since been advancing around one of Africa's great lakes, Lake Kivu, towards the second-biggest city in the area,