Burundi has "accelerated" the withdrawal of some troops from DR Congo, a senior military source told AFP Thursday, as the UN warned the small Great Lakes nation was seeing its biggest influx of refugees from its conflict-riven neighbour in 25 years.

Rwandan-backed M23 fighters have made big gains in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, seizing the cities of Goma and Bukavu, prompting warnings to the UN Security Council and stoking fears of a regional conflagration.

The United Nations warned on Wednesday that the M23 "continues to advance towards other strategic areas" in the eastern Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu.

"Since yesterday, the army has accelerated the extraction of our soldiers deployed on the Rusizi plain in the DRC," a senior army officer told AFP on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The officer did not specify how many troops were being withdrawn, but did note that one battalion had been sent to "secure the withdrawal of our soldiers" from an area in South Kivu.

Since October 2023, Burundi has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help the Congolese army against the M23 and other armed groups.

However, the........

© International Business Times