A truce announced last week by AFC/M23 rebels in Walikale, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has collapsed after just a few days. The Congolese army now accuses the Rwandan-backed group of reinforcing its military positions in North and South Kivu provinces.
Walikale has become a strategic junction in the eastern DRC, where a long-running conflict between the army and rebel groups was reignited in December.
The town is now a key crossing point towards Kisangani, where the DRC's armed forces (FARDC) relocated their headquarters following the capture of Goma and Bukavu by the AFC/M23 earlier this year.
The announcement of a truce was taken seriously by Kinshasa, the FARDC and Kigali, but the withdrawal never materialised.
According to RFI's correspondents, the AFC/M23 fighters remain in the city, and tensions persist, particularly on the road to Kisangani, 400 kilometres to the west.
The FARDC are now accusing the Rwandan-backed AFC/M23 of strengthening its military positions in Walikale-centre as well as in South Kivu. On Thursday, the FARDC said the rebel movement is strengthening its troops and arsenal in all the areas it occupies.
On the humanitarian front, the situation in Walikale is increasingly critical.
The majority of the population has fled to the bush or other locations, leaving the town almost empty. Less than 40 patients remain in the local hospital, where a small medical team continues to operate.
Medicine stocks are being strictly rationed, Doctors without Borders, which is still present in the region, told RFI. "We don't know how long we can survive this situation," said one doctor.
A record 28 million people are facing acute hunger in the country, the United Nations said on Thursday, driven by the escalation of the conflict.
This has aggravated the longstanding humanitarian crisis in the DRC, with 2.5 million more people becoming acutely hungry since the most recent surge of violence in December, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint statement.
"The humanitarian situation in the DRC is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Families who were already struggling to feed themselves are now facing an even harsher reality," said the WFP's regional director Eric Perdison.
The agencies' latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis found "the highest number ever recorded of acutely food insecure populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo".
Internally displaced people fleeing conflict are the most vulnerable. "The situation is particularly dire in the conflict-affected eastern provinces of DRC, where families have lost access to their livestock and livelihoods," the UN said.
The instability has also contributed to soaring food prices, with staples such as maize flour and palm oil subjected to price increases of up to 37 percent since December, the agencies said.
The DRC is also working towards a "safe, coordinated" exit of troops deployed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) from the east of the country, the foreign minister said on Thursday.
The 16-nation southern African regional bloc earlier this month decided to end its mission after a string of losses. It has announced a phased withdrawal from the area in which the M23 armed group has made major advances.
"The decision of SADC was a totally legitimate one and we fully respect it," said DRC foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, adding that her government was aware of the "extremely difficult conditions".
The conflict in the mineral-rich east of DRC threatens to draw in neighbouring countries, and southern and eastern African regional blocs have made numerous diplomatic efforts to find a solution.
(with newswires)