The African Union warned Sunday against the break-up of the Democratic Republic of Congo, two days after the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group entered a second city in the country’s east.

“We don’t want a balkanisation of eastern DRC,” the AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner Bankole Adeoye told reporters.

Without naming Rwanda, he added: “We are calling for the immediate removal of M23 and their supporters from all towns and cities including Goma airport.”

M23 took provincial capital Goma at the end of January, before pushing south in an escalation of violence in the eastern region that has already endured decades of clashes.

The conflict has rattled other nations. UN chief Antonio Guterres warned on Saturday that a “regional escalation must be avoided at all costs”.

Adeoye said it was “fundamental” to respect “the sovereignty, political unity, and territorial integrity of Democratic Republic of Congo”.