Rwanda-backed rebels were expanding their presence in eastern Congo after capturing Goma, the region's major city, the U.N. said Friday, also expressing concerns over executions it learned were carried out by the rebels in recent days following a major escalation of their yearslong rebellion.

We will stay here in Congo and fight. If we do not stay alive here, let’s stay dead here,’ said Congo’s defence minister.

The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 moved south as it closed in on a key military airport in DR Congo on Friday, a day after pledging to take the capital Kinshasa and as international criticism mounted.

Rwanda-backed rebels who have captured eastern Congo’s largest city say they plan to take their rebellion to the capital and seek to gain political power.

As an East African bloc urged an immediate ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who seized the city of Goma extended their advance on Wednesday, and Congo said it planned a campaign to recover lost territory.

Kagame's comments clearly suggested that he wants South Africa to back off from DR Congo, where its military involvement dates back to the late 1990s. It first joined the UN's peacekeeping mission, Monusco, following the end of the racist system of apartheid in 1994.

M23 rebels on patrol in Goma, eastern Congo, which has reserves of minerals that are needed by the world’s electronics giants © AFP/ Rwanda’s stealth occupation of eastern Congo on x (opens in a new w

The United Nations expressed deep concern at reports of M23 rebels and Rwandan troops advancing south towards the Congolese city of Bukavu on Thursday, as the militants sought also to assert their control over east Congo's largest city Goma.