Corneille Nangaa, a former head of DR Congo’s electoral commission, now leads the Congo River Alliance, which includes the M23 rebel group. He has addressed large rallies in the cities under the group’s control.

The bounty is also on offer for M23 leaders Sultani Makenga and Bertrand Bisimwa.

Last year the three men were prosecuted in absentia by a military court and given death sentences for treason.

A reward of $4m (£3) was also offered for the arrest of their accomplices.

But the chances of them being arrested appear slim.

In recent weeks the army has been no match for the Rwandan-backed rebels who have captured large parts of the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo, including the region’s two largest cities – Goma and Bukavu.

So President Félix Tshisekedi has instead focused on trying to build international pressure for Rwanda to face sanctions for backing the rebels.

Last year, a report by UN experts said up to 4,000 Rwanda troops were working with the M23 in DR Congo.

Thousands of people have been killed during the fighting and hundreds of thousands left without shelter after fleeing their homes.

The Congolese government is also seeking US support in exchange for access to its minerals.

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of trying to take control of its minerals, which include gold and coltan, used in consumers electronics such as mobile phones and computers.

In response to the reports that DR Congo was offering access to the minerals in exchange for military help fighting the M23 rebels, presidential spokeswoman Tina Salama said on X last month that President Tshisekedi was inviting the US “whose companies source strategic raw materials from Rwanda, materials that are looted from the DRC and smuggled to Rwanda” to instead buy them from the Congolese – the “rightful owners”.

Rwanda denies looting minerals from DR Congo.

It no longer denies backing the M23 but says it is trying to prevent the conflict in DR Congo from spilling over into its own territory.

Rwanda also accuses the Congolese government of working with a different armed group in DR Congo, which is linked to those responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis were massacred.

Both the M23 and Rwanda’s government are led by Tutsis.

The Congolese government denies working with the FDLR group accused by Rwanda of being a “genocidal militia”.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance which includes M23 rebels, told Reuters news agency the rebels had entered the South Kivu provincial capital on Friday evening and would continue their advance on Saturday.

The Rwandan-backed militants’ progress comes despite international calls for a ceasefire and a resumption of peace talks.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in recent weeks as a result of the rebel advance.

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Last month, the Tutsi-led M23, which is backed by neighbouring Rwanda, seized Goma, the main city in the mineral-rich east. The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of sowing chaos in the region in order to benefit from its resources, a claim Rwanda has denied.

The M23 briefly captured Goma in a previous conflict in 2012, but the taking of Bukavu, which is the capital of South Kivu province, would represent a new phase in the turbulent recent history of the region.

The city, which borders Rwanda, is on the southern tip of Lake Kivu and is an important transit point for the local mineral trade.

Earlier on Friday, rebel fighters had entered the airport some 30km (19 miles) north of Bukavu, as the Congolese army and a militia allied with it withdrew without putting up much resistance.

But there were heavy clashes on the outskirts of Bukavu, South Kivu’s Deputy governor Jean Elekano, had told the BBC.

In a village further north – Mayba – 70 bodies were found in a church, according to local media reports.

A local community coordinator in North Kivu, Vianney Vitswamba, told the DR Congo news agency 7Sur7 that the bodies were found tied up. Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels – an Islamic State-linked group – were blamed, but the BBC has not confirmed the report.

• The DR Congo rebel leader whose fighters have created turmoil
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Residents of Bukavu contacted by the BBC said the authorities advised residents to remain indoors.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, DR Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi called for Rwanda to be sanctioned, accusing it of having “expansionist ambitions”, the AFP news agency reports.

“We will no longer put up with our strategic resources being plundered for the benefit of foreign interests under the complicit gaze of those who feed on chaos,” he is quoted as saying.

As well as being accused of backing the rebels, which Rwanda has denied, the country is also said to have its own troops in eastern DR Congo.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said his country’s priority is security. He has said Rwanda is in danger from Hutu rebels in DR Congo and has dismissed any threat of sanctions.

The news of the latest advance comes as the continent’s heads of state are due to meet at an African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia on Saturday.

The head of the AU commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat is quoted by AFP as saying that a ceasefire “must be observed” adding that “military campaigns are not going to solve these problems. There is a general mobilisation of Africa today on this issue and I hope that we will be able to impose this ceasefire”.

The well-armed M23 is often accused of being a Rwandan proxy force, but the UN experts have put forward evidence to suggest that it also has Uganda’s support.

Uganda has denied the allegations in the UN report that also accuses Rwanda of having up to 4,000 troops in DR Congo fighting alongside the rebels.

In response, Rwanda did not deny the allegation and told the BBC the DR Congo government lacked the political will to resolve the crisis in its mineral-rich east, which has witnessed decades of unrest.

The UN experts said that Rwandan troops were “matching if not surpassing” the number of M23 fighters, thought to be at around 3,000 in mid-April, on Congolese soil.

Rwanda has long been angered by the presence of ethnic Hutu rebels, known as the FDLR, in eastern DR Congo – joint operations in the past have failed to eliminate them.

The group’s leaders are accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

The Tutsi-led M23 first emerged with great ferocity in 2012, only to be defeated the following year with the help of a multinational force when most of its fighters fled to camps in Rwanda and Uganda.

They began to rearm three years ago and the group now controls swathes of territory in the North Kivu province, where the UN report says M23 has installed a parallel administration.

Three million people are estimated to have fled their homes because of the fighting.

The UN experts’ 293-page report, which covers events up until mid-April, has just been published – but it was first handed to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee and then sent to the UN Security Council last month.

Their report also warned that Burundi’s military had been involved in operations with the Congolese army against the M23 and Rwandan soldiers, exacerbating regional tensions.

DR Congo’s Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said she was concerned by the allegations of collusion between the Uganda army, M23 and Rwandan military.

She said the issue would be taken up with Uganda with whom DR Congo has been involved in a joint offensive against another rebel group, the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which attacks both countries.

But the UN report said it was likely that Uganda was allowing M23 supplies and new recruits through its territory.

“Since the resurgence of the M23 crisis, Uganda has not prevented the presence of M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) troops on its territory or passage through it,” it said.

Ugandan military intelligence officers had also been in the Congolese town of Bunagana since at least late 2023 “to co-ordinate with M23 leaders, provide logistics and transport M23 leaders to M23-controlled area”.

The report also noted that M23 leaders, including its military chief Sultani Makenga – who is subject to a UN sanctions travel ban – had travelled to Uganda for meetings.

Uganda deputy military spokesman, Deo Akiiki, told the Reuters news agency the allegations in the report were false: “It would be mad for us to destabilise the same area we are sacrificing it all to have it stable.”

But the report further details Uganda’s alleged support for the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) – a newly created movement regarded by some analysts as the political arm of the M23.

It is led by DR Congo’s former electoral chief and says it wants to bring peace to the east, but according to sources quoted in the UN report, it has been seen as an opportunity to legitimise the M23 “while diminishing the role of Rwanda in the crisis”.

A joint AFC-M23 statement in response to a leaked version of the report said the UN experts had distorted the situation which might “obstruct the creation of lasting peace”.

It also gave detailed accounts of other things it felt were incorrect, like an alleged M23 attack at Goma airport and the M23’s alleged forced recruitment and use of child soldiers, which Rwanda denies too.

The AFC-M23 also denied Rwanda’s involvement in the conflict, saying the “obsession with establishing a connection between M23 and Rwanda participates in fuelling the hate ideology which is the root cause of the violence” in eastern DR Congo.

The UN report said by early April 2024, the M23 and Rwanda military’s area of influence was the largest ever recorded – representing a 70% increase since November.

It said that the deployment of advanced military technology and equipment bolstered joint M23-Rwandan military operations, “altering conflict dynamics” including by grounding all Congolese military “air assets”.

The report included photos and screengrabs giving details of the weapons and drones used – allegedly provided to the M23 despite an arms embargo.

Rwanda’s government spokesperson Yolande Makolo accused Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi of sabre-rattling.

“He has also consistently threatened to declare war on Rwanda,” she told the BBC, accusing the Congolese army of financing and fighting alongside the FDLR.

She said DR Congo had all the power to de-escalate the situation if it wanted to “but until then Rwanda will continue to defend itself”.

A regional force from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) was deployed at the end of last year to help DR Congo’s military deal with conflicts in the east.