The leader of Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo said on Thursday that a call by Kinshasa and Kigali for an immediate ceasefire "doesn't concern us" as his forces pushed deeper into Congolese territory by capturing the strategic town of Walikale.
Walikale is the farthest west the rebels have reached after fighting on Wednesday with Democratic Republic of Congo's army and allied militias.
The town of about 15,000 people, is in an area rich in minerals including tin. Its capture leaves the rebels in control of a road linking four eastern Congo provinces and within 400 km (250 miles) of Kisangani, Congo's fourth-biggest city.
Three Walikale residents and two M23 sources said the rebels were in full control of the town. Congo's army did not respond to requests for comment.
"The rebels are now visible in the centre of the city," said Fiston Misona, a civil society activist. "There are at least seven people wounded who are at the general hospital."
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame called on Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire after a surprise meeting in Qatar's capital Doha, their first direct talks since M23 stepped up its offensive in January.
But the leader of the M23 alliance dismissed the appeal, and said his forces were not fighting at Rwanda's behest.
"We are Congolese who are fighting for a cause," Corneille Nangaa, head of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), told Reuters in an interview in eastern Congo's biggest city, Goma.
"What happened in Doha, as long as we don't know the details, and as long as it doesn't solve our problems, we'll say it doesn't concern us."
Will there be direct talks between Kinshasa and M23?
The conflict, rooted in the fallout from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches, has quickly become eastern Congo's worst conflict since a 1998-2003 war that drew in multiple neighbouring countries.
Since January, the rebels have captured eastern Congo's two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, repeatedly routing Congolese troops in battle.
The United Nations, Western governments and independent experts all say Rwanda has been providing arms and troops TO the ethnic Tutsi-led M23.
Rwanda has denied backing M23 and says its military has been acting in self-defence against Congo's army and a militia founded by some of the perpetrators of the genocide.
Congo and M23 had been expected to have their first direct talks on Tuesday in Angola after Tshisekedi's government reversed its longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels.
But M23 pulled out on Monday, blaming European Union sanctions on some of its leaders and Rwandan officials.
Nangaa nevertheless reiterated demands for direct talks with Kinshasa, saying it was the only way to resolve the conflict. M23 has called for an end to what it says is the persecution of Tutsis in Congo and improvements to national governance.
"We demand that if there is a dialogue, it be a direct dialogue," he said. "We are keen on any peaceful solution."
