The leader of the rebels who captured two key cities in eastern Congo says international sanctions and the planned minerals deal that the country has offered the U.S. will not stop the fighting in the conflict-hit east.

The leader of a rebel alliance that has seized swathes of east Congo told Reuters on Thursday that insurgents were not bound by a ceasefire call from Congo and Rwanda's presidents and cast any minerals-for-security deal with the U.

Rwanda-backed rebels battling Congo’s army have pushed into a strategic, mineral-rich town in the east, ignoring calls for a ceasefire this week by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents as the M23 rebel group expands its footprint in the conflict-torn African country.