"The (rebels) arrived an hour ago. Luckily there was no force used. Now they're pretty much everywhere

The army had already left," Christian Bigebika, executive secretary of an association of local rights groups, told Reuters by telephone from the town, between Goma and Bukavu.

The M23 rebels, widely believed to be backed by Rwanda, captured Goma on Tuesday and said they planned to "liberate" all of the Democratic Republic of Congo.