Until now, the international response to the rapidly escalating crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has committed a litany of grave abuses, has been all talk and no action.

Rwanda-backed rebels have occupied a second major city in the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the government said, as M23 rebels confirmed they were in Bukavu to restore order after it was abandoned by Congolese forces.

M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have captured the eastern city of Bukavu with the backing of Rwandan forces, the second major city in the mineral-rich Kivu region to fall in three weeks.