The M23 rebels briefly seized Goma last year and only pulled out following a regionally brokered deal under which they were supposed to remain several miles outside the city.
Fighting has erupted sporadically since mid-July, ending a two-month lull in the violence, and the rebels moved closer to Goma, arguing that Kinshasa was reneging on its pledge to hold direct talks.
The group has threatened to recapture Goma but UN forces, including a 3,000-strong intervention brigade with a robust mandate to eradicate armed groups in the region, have moved in to create a security zone around the city.
Following a fresh deadly bout of fighting that erupted on Wednesday, the UN brigade launched its first military action against the M23, fighting alongside the DR Congo army.
The brigade is made up mainly of troops from southern Africa.
Rwanda, which accused Congolese troops of firing a rocket and mortar shells over the border over the past 48 hours, warned Saturday that it will not stand by “indefinitely”.
Eastern DR Congo, which borders Rwanda and Uganda, was the cradle of back-to-back wars that drew in much of the region from 1996 to 2003 and were fought largely over its vast wealth of copper, diamonds, gold and coltan, a key mobile phone component.
The instability there was exacerbated by the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when Hutus implicated in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi victims fled across the border after Tutsi leader Paul Kagame came to power.
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