The Rwanda-backed M23 has said it is committed to a ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo despite its capture of a key town and no-show at peace talks this week.
In recent months the armed group has seized swathes of the restive yet mineral-rich eastern DRC in a lightning offensive, forcing more than 100,000 people to flee to neighbouring countries, the United Nations said on Friday.
Fearing a wider war, regional powers have stepped up diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, with Qatar bringing together Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame for top-secret talks on Tuesday.
The surprise summit came as Angola, the African Union's appointed mediator, was also due to host direct negotiations between the DRC and the M23.
However, the talks in the Angolan capital Luanda foundered at the 11th hour after the M23 pulled out.
Although little has come to light on what exactly Tshisekedi and Kagame talked about in Doha, host Qatar said both leaders expressed their support for "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire".
But the day after the meeting, the M23 seized the key eastern Congolese town of Walikale -- the furthest west it has reached in the DRC since it took up arms again in 2021.
Confirming Walikale's capture in a statement from the armed group's Alliance Fleuve Congo political coalition late on Thursday, the M23 said: "We reaffirm our commitment to the ceasefire and will continue to uphold it.
"However, in the event of provocation or attacks against civilians, our forces will respond."
It marks the M23's first public remarks on the subject since the Kagame-Tshisekedi summit came to light.
The armed group accused the Congolese army of the "continued indiscriminately (sic) bombardment of heavily populated areas, livestock, and villages, as well as our positions using both fighter jets and heavy artillery".
The M23, which claims to defend Congolese ethnic Tutsis, said Walikale "has been liberated by our forces to ensure the safety of the civilian population", adding it "had no choice but to intervene to rescue our compatriots".
- Lucrative tin mine -
Since the end of 2021, a half-dozen ceasefires and truces have been brokered before being broken in short order.
To date, every diplomatic push hoping to put an end to the fighting has foundered.
On Friday, the UN's refugee agency said the violence had forced more than 100,000 people to flee in less than three months.
Meanwhile, sites previously home to 400,000 internally displaced Congolese had been destroyed, "leaving families stranded without shelter or protection", a UNHCR spokeswoman said.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of using the M23 to pillage the fertile farmland and rich veins of minerals including gold and coltan present in the Congolese east.
Walikale is close to the Bisie mine for the tin ore cassiterite, the world's third largest, as well as lucrative gold deposits.
In mid-March, the Alphamin company pulled its staff out of the Bisie mine, citing security concerns.
Walikale, a town of some 60,000 people, also sits at the crossroads linking the rest of the DRC to the key eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces bordering Rwanda.
Both Goma and Bukavu have since the beginning of the year fallen to the M23, which has set up to govern in the long run in the regions under its control.
A UN experts' report found that Rwanda maintains 4,000 soldiers in the eastern DRC to fight alongside the militia and that its fighters operate under the Rwandan army's de facto control.
Rwanda has consistently denied offering the M23 military backing.
But it argues it faces a persistent security threat from the FDLR, an armed group founded by ethnic Hutus involved in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.