KIGALI, Rwanda

More than 700 Congolese nationals have crossed into neighboring Rwanda, fleeing new clashes between the M23 rebel group and government forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said Friday, a day after Congolese and Rwandan leaders signed US-brokered peace deal aimed to end decades-long conflict in the country.

Women and children constitute the majority of the refugees, Phanuel Sindayiheba, a local government official in western Rwanda’s Rusizi district bordering Congo told reporters.

He said the refugees were temporarily being hosted at a transit center in the district and provided with basic items, including food and bedding materials.

Footage shared on social media showed columns of displaced people moving toward Rwanda through the Congo-Rwanda Bugarama-Kamanyola border post — some carrying their belongings and livestock.

Local media reported Friday that fighting intensified in the morning hours near the town of Luvungi in South Kivu province in eastern Congo between Congolese forces and M23 rebels, causing massive displacement of residents.

According to Une, a local news portal, the rebels launched coordinated attacks against positions of government forces at dawn, raising concerns just a day after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame signed a peace agreement in Washington, brokered by the US.

Lawrence Kanyuka, an M23 spokesperson, claimed in a post on American social media company X that Congolese forces and allies launched “attacks on densely populated areas in North Kivu and South Kivu, using fighter jets, drones, and heavy artillery.”

He claimed that two bombs launched from Burundi on Thursday evening struck close to Kamanyola town, killing four people and seriously injuring two.

Rwanda is accused of backing M23 rebels, a claim Kigali has consistently denied.

On Thursday, during the signing ceremony, Trump said, “Today, we commit to stopping decades of violence and bloodshed, and to begin a new era of harmony and cooperation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.”

Kagame said the US-led peace deal provides “everything needed to end this conflict once and for all.”

Tshisekedi said the Washington accords, which aims for peace and prosperity, “must be for our peoples, a symbol of an irreversible commitment to turn (the) page of confrontations and to open a new era of cooperation and sustainable peace throughout the region.”

Between July and October, more than 123,600 people were displaced in Congo, due to armed attacks, clashes, land conflicts, and natural hazards, according to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.