(Reuters) -Rwandan-backed M23 rebels asserted their control over east Congo's largest city Goma on Thursday by calling on residents to resume normal life, even as the group clashed with Congolese troops as they tried to take more territory.

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Thursday that his troopers are fighting an insurgence by the Rwandan-backed militant group M23 which recently captured swaths of land in the east.

Rwanda-backed rebels who have captured eastern Congo’s largest city say they plan to take their rebellion to the capital and seek to gain political power.