E.Africa troops to 'enforce peace' in east DR Congo

Kenyan President William Ruto said that East African troops would "enforce peace" in embattled eastern DR Congo, where the M23 armed group have launched an offensive.

Kenyan troops, deployed as part of an East African Community (EAC) force, arrived in the volatile region on November 12.

The regional force will "enforce peace on those who are hellbent on creating instability," Ruto said in a news conference in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, Kinshasa.

The M23, a largely Congolese Tutsi militia, has seized swathes of territory across North Kivu province, edging towards the region's main city of Goma.

The fighting has reignited regional tensions, with the DRC accusing its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the M23, something that UN experts and US officials have also said in recent months.

Kigali denies supporting the M23 and accuses Kinshasa of colluding with the FDLR -- a former Rwandan Hutu rebel group established in the DRC after the 1994 genocide of mainly Tutsis in Rwanda.

Ruto told reporters that EAC heads of state, in their joint mandate to the regional force, agreed that the mission was to ensure peace as well as enforce it.

The mandate has been communicated to the African Union and the UN Security Council, he said.

Kenya is sending about 900 troops to the DRC as part of a joint EAC force created to help restore security.