A fire in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Bukavu, controlled by the M23 rebel group, has killed 14 people, including 12 children, local sources told AFP on Monday.

The densely populated capital of the South Kivu region fell at the beginning of 2025 to the M23 rebels.

The fire, which raged overnight on Sunday to Monday, ignited in the Mosala neighbourhood of M23-run Bukavu's Kadutu commune, with a string of buildings going up in smoke, local sources said.

Fourteen victims had been identified on Monday, including one mother and her eight children and another woman with her four kids, Mosala leader Patrick Lubala told AFP.

Cause of fire yet to be established

The South Kivu authorities, which are still appointed by the Congolese government, confirmed that toll to AFP.

The authorities installed by M23 meanwhile reported the same number of deaths, without providing further details

"We were alerted around midnight. The fire, whose cause is still unknown, started in a wooden house," Mosala local Elisha Matabaro, 36, told AFP.

Several residents destroyed houses in an attempt to stop the fire from spreading, an AFP reporter saw.

'Don't know where to go'

Jean-Buhendwa Musole, who escaped unharmed, managed to save several personal items from the flames that burnt his house to the ground.

"We don't know where to go, especially in this rainy season," Musole said, while standing with his family in front of the ashes of his home.

Former Bukavu civil protection coordinator Maitre Adolphe Bandeke told AFP the disaster was the latest in a "long series of blazes" in the city.

Bandeke blamed a lack of proper distancing between buildings and illegal connections to the power grid for the deadly incident.