Rebels in Congo Reach Door of Goma A Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008. Congolese army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the fighting has been going on since 6 a.m. Sunday and the front line has moved to just a few kilometers (miles) outside the city. After more than nine hours of violent clashes the two sides took a break, with M23 rebels establishing a checkpoint just 100 meters (yards) away from one held by the military in the village of Munigi, exactly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) outside the Goma city line. Contacted by telephone on the front line, M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama said the group will spend the night in Goma. We are about to take the town. We will spend the night in Goma tonight," said Kazarama. "We are confident that we can take Goma and then our next step will be to take Bukavu," he said mentioning the capital of the next province to the south. The M23 rebel group is made up of soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, a group made-up primarily of fighters from the Tutsi ethnic group, the ethnicity that was targeted in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In 2008, the CNDP led by Rwandan commando Gen. Laurent Nkunda marched his soldiers to the doorstep of Goma, abruptly stopping just before taking the city. FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2012 file photo, an M23 rebel walks the streets of the North Kivu town of Rubare near Rutshuru, 75 km (48 miles) north of Goma, Congo. The Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008. Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012, and the frontline has moved to just a few kilometers (miles) outside the city. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File) Close In the negotiations that followed and which culminated in a March 23, 2009 peace deal, the CNDP agreed to disband and their fighters joined the national army of Congo. They did not pick up their arms again until this spring, when hundreds of ex-CNDP fighters defected from the army in April, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the 2009 agreement. Reports, including one by the United Nations Group of Experts, have shown that M23 is actively being backed by Rwanda and the new rebellion is likely linked to the fight to control Congo's rich mineral wealth. The latest fighting broke out Thursday and led to the deaths of 151 rebels and two soldiers. On Saturday U.N. attack helicopters targeted M23 positions in eastern Congo. Also on Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had called Rwandan President Paul Kagame "to request that he use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain M23 from continuing their attack," according to peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous who spoke at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Saturday. North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said Saturday that the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, which is 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Goma, after thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels, attacked early Saturday. "Rwandan forces bombarded our positions in Kibumba since early this morning and an estimated 3,500 crossed the border to attack us," he said Saturday. In downtown Goma, panicked residents had come out to try to get more information on what was happening. A 45-year-old mother of five said that she has nowhere to go. "I don't really know what is happening, I've seen soldiers and tanks in the streets and that scares me," said Imaculee Kahindo. Asked if she planned to leave the city, she said: "What can we do? I will probably hide in my house with my children. Hamuli, the spokesman for the Congolese army, denied reports that soldiers were fleeing.