The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group unleashed Monday a wave of raids in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 15 people and forcing hundreds to flee.

Locals, health workers, and government officials testified that attacks occurred in the Rutshuru district of the eastern province of North Kivu.

In recent days, fighting has raged between Tutsi M23 rebels and Congolese government forces in the Rutshuru and Masisi districts. Access to Goma, the capital of North Kivu, has been virtually cut.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations, and Western nations allege that Rwanda is aiding the rebels in order to gain control of massive natural riches, which Kigali denies.

According to sources, violence has erupted in various regions north of Goma, and local official Maisha Faustin told AFP that a major supply route for the Congolese army was cut off.

The confrontations in Nyanzale, around 10 kilometers (six miles) west of Kirima, killed at least 15 people, including children.

Ombeni Gasiga, a prominent civil society leader in Nyanzale expressed that "The whole population fled" as "bombs rained on the residents."

A healthcare worker explained that workers were forced to flee with patients.

Several reports said that at least ten individuals, including children, were killed when a missile fell near a building.

A health worker reported the injury of 12 individuals, with five of them dying, including three children.

On Monday, the European Union joined the US and France in denouncing Kigali, stating that the bloc condemns the violence and "strongly urges Rwanda to immediately withdraw all its military personnel from the DRC as well as to terminate all support to and cooperation with M23."

3,000 killed in war between 2022 and 2023

The UN believes that around 3,000 people were murdered in the war between June 2022 and July 2023. The DRC government, however, sets the death toll at 180, a statistic that has remained constant since October 2022.

As for the East of Congo, it is plagued by dozens of armed groups, many of which are a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.

Ituri province is one of eastern DR Congo's violence hotspots, where attacks claiming dozens of lives are common.

According to AFP, the CODECO militia, or Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, claims to protect the Lendu community from another ethnic group, the Hema, as well as the DR Congo army.

In June, militants killed seven people, and CODECO militants assaulted an army post in the Djukoth district of Ituri province's Mahagi territory.