The M23 rebel group in eastern DRC has pushed into new territory, officials said, after a regional bloc called for a laydown.

The M23, a resurgent group made up mostly of Congolese Tutsis, has swept across North Kivu province, sparking a humanitarian crisis and a showdown between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the rebels.

In recent weeks, militants have moved closer to Goma, a major trading center of a million people on the border with Rwanda.

But residents and administration officials told AFP that the armed group had also begun a westward push into the Masisi area.

“The rebels are here,” a resident of Tongo, a town in Virunga National Park, which lies on the road to Masisi Territory, said Thursday.

A local government official, who asked not to be identified, told AFP late Wednesday that M23 fighters entered his office.

M23 fighters and Congolese troops clashed this week in Kibumba, just 20 kilometers north of Goma.

A security official, who asked not to be named, said Thursday the M23 is now controlling the settlement.

The DRC army has yet to officially communicate on the rebel advance.

On Wednesday, the head of the newly created East African Community (EAC) forces in eastern DRC Jeff Nyagah said the rebels needed to conduct political negotiations and disarm.

“Those who fail or refuse to disarm voluntarily, we will deal with them,” the Kenyan general warned.

Nyagah also promised that the EAC force would protect Goma.

Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations submitted to AFP in August indicated Rwanda’s involvement in the M23.

The report also said that the M23 plans to seize Goma to extort political concessions from the government in Kinshasa.

The M23 first gained notoriety in 2012 when it captured Goma before being driven off and going to the ground.

But the rebel group reemerged late last year, claiming that, among other things, the DRC had broken a promise to integrate its fighters into the army.