Rwandan-backed rebels strengthened their control over east Congo's largest city, Goma, on Wednesday as columns of Romanian mercenaries hired to fight for Congo entered Rwanda under tight supervision by Rwandan security forces.

Despite a flurry of diplomatic activity, including the United States telling Rwanda it was "deeply troubled" by Goma's fall to M23 fighters, there were growing signs the rebels were taking over the running of Goma.

Isolated gunfire sounded through some outlying districts of the lakeside city of 2-million where Monday's rebel storming left bodies lying in the streets, hospitals overwhelmed and UN peacekeepers sheltering in bases.

The city is a hub for people displaced by recent fighting in eastern Congo and earlier wars and for humanitarian groups, UN peacekeepers and Congo's army. On Tuesday, M23 fighters seized control of the airport, a vital link to the outside world.

Congo's forces were nowhere to be seen in the city centre on Wednesday, and a Reuters reporter saw M23 fighters patrolling the border with Rwanda and cutting chains and padlocks that had barred the way for pedestrians and vehicles.

"It feels like we are in a dual nation. We are in Congo and at the same time in Rwanda," a resident of an upscale part of Goma said.

A resident of the northern Majengo neighbourhood said militias known as Wazalendo, allied with the government since 2022 to resist M23 advances in the hinterlands, appeared to be active in the area.

"There are some sporadic shots that are heard here in the neighbourhood. They are certainly Wazalendo," the resident said.

MERCENARIES LEAVE

At a border crossing between Goma and its Rwandan twin city of Gisenyi, Reuters reporters saw dozens of muscular white men, some in fatigues, coming over to the Rwandan side and lining up to have their luggage examined by police sniffer dogs. They submitted to being body-searched by Rwandan officers.

UN sources and Rwandan officials said they were Congo's mercenaries. Several held Romanian passports. One told Reuters he was Romanian and had been in Goma about two years.

"Goma is devastated because of the war between the Rwandan and the Congolese," he said. "We are just relieved because we can go finally home."

He said the Rwandans had treated the group well.

After being searched, the mercenaries boarded coaches and were driven away.

As the Rwandan-backed rebels gained ground in the last two years, Congo turned to private military companies to try to shore up their defences.

The mercenaries provided training and advice to Congolese troops and were deployed to protect Goma but appeared to offer little resistance when M23 marched into the city centre on Monday.

M23 is the latest ethnic Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed insurgency to roil Congo since the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda 30 years ago, when extremist Hutus killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and then were toppled by the Tutsi-led forces led by Kagame.

Rwanda says some of the ousted perpetrators have sheltered in Congo since the genocide, posing a threat to Congolese Tutsis and Rwanda itself. Congo rejects Rwanda's complaints, and says Rwanda has used its proxy militias to loot lucrative minerals such as coltan, which is used in smartphones.

GERMANY CANCELS AID TALKS WITH RWANDA

Germany's development ministry said it had cancelled consultations with Rwanda planned for mid-February.

Washington urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to consider unspecified measures to halt the offensive, and the African Union demanded M23's immediate withdrawal from occupied areas.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on X he had agreed on the need for a ceasefire in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio but gave no indication of bowing to demands for a withdrawal from Goma.

Rubio said Washington was deeply troubled by the escalation and urged respect for "sovereign territorial integrity", the US State Department said.

Goma's four main hospitals have treated at least 760 wounded people, medical and humanitarian sources said on Tuesday, cautioning that an accurate death toll could not be established since many people were dying outside hospitals.

The UN humanitarian office said it had received reports of rapes committed by fighters.

The eight-state East African Community, of which Congo and Rwanda are members, was due to hold an emergency summit on the crisis on Wednesday evening. A Rwandan government source said Kagame would attend. Congo's president, Felix Tshisekedi, was not expected to participate, a source at the presidency and a regional diplomat said.

Congo's presidency said Tshisekedi would address the nation on Wednesday.

Congo and the head of UN peacekeeping have said Rwandan troops are in Goma, backing their M23 allies. Rwanda has said it is defending itself against the threat from Congolese militias, without directly commenting on whether its troops have crossed the border.

In the Congolese capital Kinshasa, 1 600 km west of Goma, protesters attacked a UN compound and embassies including those of Rwanda, France and the US on Tuesday, over what they said was foreign interference.