SECURITY in Congo’s mineral-rich east has deteriorated since a rebel group made “significant advances,” the UN’s special envoy to the country said on Wednesday.

Bintou Keita told the UN security council this has created “an even more disastrous humanitarian situation, with internal displacement reaching unparalleled numbers.”

The international community has warned neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, which allegedly backs the M23 rebel group, that they should step back from the looming conflict.

United States deputy ambassador Robert Wood again condemned an “aggressive military incursion” into eastern Congo by the M23 rebel group and the Rwandan Defence Force, which has seen attacks on UN peacekeepers.

Mr Wood described M23 as “a group which has perpetrated appalling human rights abuses against civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence.”

He called the international community’s failure to condemn the actions of Rwanda “dismaying.”

The Rwandan Foreign Ministry said last month that the country’s troops are defending Rwandan territory as Congo carries out a “dramatic military build-up” near the border.

The ministry’s statement said national security is threatened by the presence in Congo of an armed group whose members include alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which more than 800,000 Tutsi and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed.

The rebel group, known by its initials FDLR, is “fully integrated” into the Congolese army, the statement said. 

Although Rwanda has long cited a threat posed by FLDR, authorities there have never admitted to a military presence in eastern Congo.

During a fierce exchange at the security council, Congolese ambassador Zenon Ngay Mukongo called the M23 and Rwandan forces a “coalition of the axis of evil.”

He said a meeting of heads of state is planned for April and Congo is seeking lasting peace throughout the country. He added it would “not accept window-dressing arrangements aimed at perpetuating insecurity and confusion,” which would encourage M23 and Rwanda’s “shameless exploitation of strategic minerals” in eastern Congo.

Rwandan ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo reiterated his own government’s serious concerns about “the dangers of genocide, the ideology, which has spilled over into the DRC.”

UN envoy Bintou Keita told the council that a mediation process via Angola has resumed.

In response to a question afterward by reporters about Wednesday’s confrontation between the ambassadors, she said she strongly believes this mediation and other efforts to reduce tensions should be supported “in spite of the displeasure that we saw” in the council.