Congo rebels advance to outskirts of Goma An M23 soldier in Rubare, north of Goma. The Congolese army has denied reports its troops were refusing to fight and fleeing. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP A Rwandan-backed rebel group has advanced to within 1.8 miles (3km) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time rebels have come this close since 2008. Congolese army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli said the fighting had been continuing since 6am on Sunday and the front line had moved to just outside the city. He denied reports Congolese soldiers were refusing to fight and fleeing. Contacted by telephone on the front line, M23 rebel spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said his forces were poised to capture the city. 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 referring to the capital of the next province to the south. The M23 rebel group comprises soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a group made up primarily of fighters from the Tutsi, the ethnic group targeted in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In 2008, the CNDP led by Rwandan commando General Laurent Nkunda marched his soldiers to the outskirts of Goma but stopped short of taking the city. In the negotiations that culminated in a peace deal on 23 March 2009, the CNDP agreed to disband and their fighters joined the national army of Congo. They did not take up arms again until this spring, when hundreds of ex-CNDP fighters defected from the army in April, claiming the Congolese government had failed to keep their side of the 2009 agreement. Numerous reports including one by the United Nations Group of Experts have shown M23 is being actively backed by Rwanda and that the new rebellion is most likely linked to the fight to control Congo's rich mineral wealth. The latest fighting broke out on Thursday and on Saturday, UN attack helicopters targeted M23 positions in eastern Congo, killing 151 rebels. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, had called the Rwandan president on Saturday, Paul Kagame, "to request that he use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain M23 from continuing their attack," peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said at UN headquarters in New York. The governor of North Kivu, Paluku, said on Saturday the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, 19 miles (30km) north of Goma, after being attacked by thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels. "Rwandan forces bombarded our positions in Kibumba since early this morning and an estimated 3,500 crossed the border to attack us," he said on Saturday. In downtown Goma, panicked residents tried to get more information on what was happening. A 45-year-old mother of five said that she had 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. In 2008, as Nkunda's CNDP rebels massed at the gates of Goma, reporters inside the city were able to see Congolese soldiers running in the opposite direction having abandoned their posts. The badly paid Congolese army is notoriously dysfunctional, making it difficult to secure their loyalties during heavy fighting. We are fighting 3km from Goma, just past the airport. And our troops are strong enough to resist the rebels," said Hamuli. "We won't let the M23 march into our town," he said. Asked if his troops were fleeing, he added: "These are false rumours. We are not going anywhere. Ladsous said from the UN in New York on Saturday that the rebels were well-equipped, including with night vision equipment. Reports by UN experts have accused Rwanda, as well as Uganda, of supporting the rebels. Both countries deny any involvement and Uganda said if the charges continued it would pull its peacekeeping troops out of Somalia, where they are playing a key role in pushing out the Islamist extremist rebels. The UN security council called for an immediate stop to the violence following a two-hour emergency meeting behind closed doors. The council said it would impose sanctions against M23 rebels and demanded they immediately halt their advance. "We must stop the M23" because Goma's fall "would, inevitably, turn into a humanitarian crisis," said France's ambassador to the UN, Gerard Araud. He said UN officials would decide in the coming days which M23 leaders to target for additional sanctions.