GOMA, Congo >> Panic spread in eastern Congo’s main city Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to Goma and seizing a nearby town as they battle the Congolese army.

Bombs were heard going off in the city’s distant outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought in to the main hospital from the area of the fighting.

The rebel group has been making significant advances in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, home to around 2 million people and a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts. On Thursday, the rebels took Sake, a town only 16 miles from Goma and one of the last main routes into the provincial capital still under government control, according to the U.N. chief.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, along the border with Rwanda, in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

More than 7 million people have been displaced by the fighting. Earlier this month, M23 captured the towns of Minova, Katale and Masisi, west of Goma.

“The people of Goma have suffered greatly, like other Congolese,” an M23 spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, said on X. “M23 is on its way to liberate them, and they must prepare to welcome this liberation.”

M23 seized Goma in 2012 and controlled it for over a week.

As news of fighting spread, schools in Goma sent students home Thursday morning.

“We are told that the enemy wants to enter the city. That’s why we are told to go home,” Hassan Kambale, a 19-year-old high school student, said. “We are constantly waiting for the bombs.”

Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, mainly composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago.

Rwanda’s government denies the claim but last year admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border.

U.N. experts estimate up to 4,000 Rwandan forces are in Congo.