Burundi has "accelerated" the withdrawal of some troops from DR Congo, a senior military source told AFP Thursday, as the UN warned the small Great Lakes nation was seeing its biggest influx of refugees from its conflict-riven neighbour in 25 years.

Burundi grapples with its largest refugee influx in 25 years as families escape the escalating violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwandan-backed M23 fighters have seized key cities, raising alarms at the UN Security Council.

Burundi has begun pulling its forces out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), where they had been fighting alongside Congolese troops