RWANDA-backed militia controlling cities in eastern Congo have forcibly closed settlement camps, leading to the displacement of more than 110,000 people in recent days, the United Nations and locals said on Tuesday.

The M23 militia — the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of Congo’s mineral-rich east — captured Goma, the region’s largest city, in late January in a major escalation of the years-long conflict with government forces. 

The rebels’ advance into Goma has killed at least 2,000 people in and around the city, Congolese authorities said.

M23 issued a 72-hour ultimatum to displaced people to leave settlement camps and return to their villages, the UN’s humanitarian aid co-ordination agency said on Tuesday. 

Though the militia later clarified that returns should be voluntary, the agency said more than 110,000 displaced people have left such camps for distant villages far from help, according to aid groups.

“I am surprised because we are asked to leave, yet I have nothing to give to the children,” said Sibomana Safari as she left the city’s Bulengo displacement camp.

“We are leaving without any help and I don’t know if we’re going to make it,” she said. 

At least 500,000 people have been displaced in the region following M23’s advance, according to the Forum of International Non-Governmental Organisations. 

Goma was hosting close to a million displaced people before the escalation of fighting on February 26.

Kwimana Sifa, among those leaving the Bulengo camp, said he had no place to go after his house was destroyed by a bomb.

“It is better to leave us here. Although we lack food, we have shelter,” he added. “What we want is peace, nothing else.”