NZULO, Congo (AP) — The M23 rebel group's advance toward eastern Congo's largest city has displaced over 178,000 people in the past two weeks, the United Nations said, as the fighters closed in on Goma on the border with Rwanda.

The M23 has been making significant advances, though it was unclear whether the rebels will try to capture Goma, which they seized in 2012 and controlled for over a week. Congolese authorities said Tuesday its fighters seized the town of Minova, on a key supply route for Goma, a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.

Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, composed of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army over a decade ago. Rwanda's government denies the claim.

The U.N. humanitarian agency said Tuesday the new mass displacement was caused by fighting around Minova in South Kivu province.

Thousands of people spilled out of packed wooden boats in Goma on Wednesday, some with bundles of belongings strapped around their foreheads.

Displaced people have filled the Nzulo camp on the outskirts of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and home to around 2 million people.

But some people were already leaving the camp as rebels approached.

David Kasereka fled on a motorbike with a child, barely stopping to speak. “We don’t know where we are going, because everywhere, the bombs are following us,” he told The Associated Press.

Nadège Bauma, like many in Nzulo, was first displaced due to intense fighting in the town of Sake. Inside the camp, the mother of six gathered what she could of her belongings and piled them into a minibus to flee again.

“We just learned that the M23 have arrived in Ngwiro (about 19 miles or 30 kilometers west of Goma) and we decided to leave the area because bullets and bombs are falling,” she said.

The provincial governor of South Kivu, Jean-Jacques Purusi, confirmed the capture of Minova, adding that the rebels have also taken the mining towns of Lumbishi, Numbi and Shanje along with the town of Bweremana in North Kivu province.

Congo’s military said in a statement Tuesday that the rebels made “breakthroughs” in Minova and Bweremana.