DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Fighting has escalated sharply in recent weeks in eastern Congo, where rebels have seized key towns and are closing in on the city of Goma, the government's last stronghold in the region bordering Rwanda.

The offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group has stretched local hospitals to the limit, with hundreds of wounded coming in every day as civilians get caught in the crossfire. Thousands have been displaced, exacerbating an existing humanitarian crisis and prompting fears of an all-out regional war.

Here is what to know about the fighting:

What's happening on the ground?

Explosions from Goma's outskirts have been reverberating across the city of 2 million people this week. Schools and stores are closed and police are out in full force. Military checkpoints, erected overnight, stop and check all vehicles.

On Friday, the governor of eastern Congo's North Kivu province, where Goma is the provincial capital, died of wounds sustained on the front line. The circumstances of Maj. Gen Peter Cirimwami's death were not immediately known — he was visiting troops fighting the rebels when he was wounded.

On Thursday, the rebels seized Sake, a town only 27 kilometers (16 miles) from Goma, sending panic surging as concerns mounted that the city could soon fall. Earlier in the week, they captured Minova, a strategically important port on the shores of Lake Kivu, and also the towns of Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.

Most of the fighting between the Congolese army and the rebels on Friday was focused on Kibumba, a town about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Goma, and also around Sake.

Who are the rebels and what do they want?

The M23 rebels — or The March 23 Movement — is one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region in a decades-long conflict in eastern Congo. In recent weeks, the rebels have made significant territorial gains, seizing towns and villages and encircling Goma.

The group was created in 2012 after the failed integration of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army. It claims to defend Tutsi from discrimination but critics say it's a pretext for Rwanda to obtain economic and political influence over eastern Congo.

“Studies have long highlighted the smuggling of resources" from Congo into Rwanda, said Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst with U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “Congolese officials increasingly accuse Rwanda of pursuing control over the region’s resources and aiming to annex parts” of Congo.

In territories under its control, M23 implements its own tax system, runs a local government and controls natural resources.

What's the role of neighboring Rwanda?

Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, which had only hundreds of members in 2021. Now, according to the United Nations, the group has around 6,500 fighters.

While Rwanda denies that claim, it acknowledged last year that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo, allegedly to safeguard its security. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.

Serwat, the Africa analyst, says that Rwanda's engagement has brought it into direct conflict with Congolese forces, “escalating political tensions” between the neighbors.

A “declaration of war" by Congo against Rwanda would risk turning "into a regional conflict in East Africa,” said Darren Davids, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

People are fleeing fighting again

The U.N. refugee agency says more than 400,000 people have been displaced in eastern Congo since the beginning of the year, exacerbating “desperate conditions” in severely overcrowded displacement centers in and around Goma and triggering an increase in cholera cases.

Jean Claude Bauma, 35, fled Masisi when M23 overran the town and was staying with his family at the Nzulo camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Goma. But relentless shelling near the camp forced the father of five to flee into the city center this week.

“We fear for our lives, since the birth of my children, we have been fleeing the war,” Bauma told the AP. “This time ... if it’s to die, I will die here.”

Why is Goma important for the rebels?

The city is a regional hub for trade, security and humanitarian efforts, and its airport is key for transporting supplies.

Back in 2012, the rebels seized Goma and controlled it for about a week but after mounting international pressure on Rwanda — including suspension of aid from the United States and Britain — the M23 surrendered the city.

Since 2021, Congo’s government and allied forces, including Burundian troops and U.N. troops, have been keeping the rebels away from Goma.

“The capture of such a large city” will certainly be a huge boost for the rebels and a major defeat of the government forces, said Davids, the economist.

Its fall would also have a “catastrophic impact on hundreds of thousands of civilians, putting them at risk of heightened exposure to human rights violations and abuses,” said Ravina Shamdasani of the U.N. human rights office.

Francois Moreillon, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross for Congo, said he's worried also that ICRC staff running the main hospital in Goma would have to evacuate. If the hospital and the staff were no longer safe, who would treat the patients, he asked.

"This situation is simply unacceptable,” Moreillon said.

UN troops deploy outside Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as M23 rebels are reported to close in on the town. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

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Mariam Nasibu stands by her 10-year-old daughter Deborah, who was wounded in the fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese armed forces, in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

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People fleeing M-23 rebel advances arrive by boat in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025(AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

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