GOMA - Gunfire broke out on Sunday night in the centre of the besieged Congolese city Goma after the Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighbouring Rwanda of sending more troops across the border to help pro-Kigali fighters capture the provincial capital.
With international pressure mounting for an end to the battle for Goma, Kenya announced on Sunday that DR Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame had agreed to attend a summit in the next two days.
After Sunday nightfall, large explosions were heard across the main city of the mineral-rich North Kivu province, AFP correspondents said. Fighters from the M23 backed by Rwandan troops have been locked in fighting with the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers on Goma's outskirts for several days.
By midnight, Goma had fallen quiet though it was still unclear whether the M23 had advanced far into the city.
The battle over Goma was the latest chapter of fighting in eastern DRC, a volatile area that has struggled with regional rivalries, ethnic disputes and armed militia conflicts for more than three decades.
Accusing Rwanda of issuing a "declaration of war" by sending more troops over the border, the DRC called for the United Nations to impose sanctions on its neighbour for helping the M23.
Already backed by several thousand Rwandan soldiers, the M23 has in recent days advanced rapidly against Congolese troops defending the city.
Around a dozen foreign peacekeepers have been killed in the escalating clashes, and UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday called on Kigali to pull its armed forces out of the country -- a call rejected by Rwanda.
In a statement Sunday, Rwanda's foreign ministry said it had to have a "sustained defensive posture" because of the fighting near its border with DR Congo.
But Kenyan President William Ruto later on Sunday announced a summit of the East African Community regional bloc with the leaders of Rwanda and the DR Congo for talks over the crisis.
The talks would "deliberate on this crisis and chart a way forward", Ruto said in a statement.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council earlier on Sunday in response to the crisis, Kinshasa's top diplomat warned more Rwandan troops were crossing the border "in an open and deliberate violation" of sovereignty.
"This is a frontal assault, a declaration of war that no longer hides behind diplomatic artifice," said Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner.
Between 500 and 1,000 Rwandan soldiers arrived on Sunday to reinforce the M23 near Goma, UN sources told AFP.