Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will attend a summit on Saturday on the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where a Rwanda-backed armed group is advancing.

EFF president Julius Malema has accused Rwandan president Paul Kagame of having the blood of South African soldiers on his hands. Malema has also called for the closure of the Rwandan embassy amid rising tensions between South Africa and Rwanda.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has hit back at those criticising South Africa’s role in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rwanda welcomed calls for a summit of two African regional groups to discuss the crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo, as Tanzania became the latest country to announce the loss of soldiers there.

The SA National Defence Force released the names of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo during combat against the M23 rebels.

The conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo risks escalating into a broader regional war, Burundi’s president said on Saturday, as Africa’s top health agency warned the fighting could spark new outbreaks of serious diseases.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will dispatch a team to North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to facilitate the repatriation of deceased and injured SA National Defence Force members, as well as those from Malawian and Tanzanian forces.

After seizing the biggest city in eastern DR Congo, the Rwandan-backed armed group M23 was advancing south through a neighbouring province on Friday, as young men volunteered to fight against it alongside the struggling Congolese army.

The Ugandan army said that its troops stationed in eastern DR Congo would adopt a “forward defensive posture” amid escalating fighting in the region.

Nigeria’s Grammy-winning singer Tems announced she was cancelling an upcoming concert in Kigali over Rwanda’s support of the M23 armed group waging an offensive in eastern DR Congo.

Strewn with rubble from mortar and artillery fire, the eastern DR Congo city of Goma awoke on Thursday to a new abnormal — hiding from bandits and counting the dead.

Uganda has confirmed an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the capital Kampala with the first confirmed patient dying from it on Wednesday, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Mozambique’s military said on Thursday it had launched an operation in the country’s north following a new attack blamed on jihadist militants who allegedly beheaded three local people.

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group vowed Thursday to “continue the march of liberation” to the DR Congo capital Kinshasa, as its fighters made further advances in the mineral-rich east of the country.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s M23 rebels are moving south towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, in what appears to be an attempt to expand their area of control in the country’s east after capturing the city of Goma.

Rwanda has accused South Africa of siding with genocidal forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying the force SA leads in the DRC was sent to join in battle, not to keep the peace.

The president of crisis-hit Democratic Republic of Congo was set to meet his Rwandan counterpart at an emergency summit on Wednesday, as fighters backed by Kigali appeared on the brink of seizing the key city of Goma.

The African Union said on Tuesday it condemned the violence in eastern DR Congo and called on the M23 armed group to “lay down arms”.

Police in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fired tear gas at protesters in the capital, Kinshasa, on Tuesday, after embassies were attacked over the conflict in the country’s east.

Rwandan-backed rebels marched into east Congo’s largest city Goma on Monday and Congolese troops exchanged fire with the Rwandan military across the border, in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.

In 2018, Corneille Nangaa orchestrated the heavily criticised vote that handed President Felix Tshisekedi power. Today, he is the public face of a sprawling coalition of Congolese politicians and rebel groups fighting to oust him.