The M23 armed group is advancing on strategic zones in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after taking two key cities, the United Nations warned, underscoring the threat of a regional conflict.

Recent weeks have seen the rapid progression of the Rwanda-backed M23, which has seized vast tracts of the eastern DRC, including Goma and Bukavu.

“If our information is correct, [the M23] continues to advance towards other strategic areas in North and South Kivu,” the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for the Great Lakes region, Huang Xia, told the Security Council.

He said while the “deep intentions of the M23 and their support” remain unknown, “the risk of a regional conflagration is more real than ever,” adding that such a conflict would have “catastrophic” consequences.

The fighting in recent weeks has raised fears of a repeat of the Second Congo War, from 1998 to 2003, which drew in multiple African countries and resulted in millions of deaths from violence, disease and starvation.

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), Bintou Keita, also expressed concern about the advance of the M23 – now “at the junction of the three borders between the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi”.