Rebels from the Rwandan-backed M23 group have seized the strategically important airport serving Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a rapid advance south in recent days.
The airport in the town of Kavumu, where Congolese troops had been positioned, is the last military obstacle to the rebels before Bukavu, a city of about a million people 17 miles (27km) to the south.
Vinywasiki, whose songs often criticised conflict and human rights violations in DRC, was one of hundreds of prisoners who broke out of a prison in Goma during the M23 advance last month.
Bukavu previously fell to soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in 2004 and the capture of the city would in effect give the M23 total control of the Lake Kivu area.
M23 is the latest in a string of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgent groups that have operated in the mineral-rich eastern DRC since a 2003 deal was meant to end wars that had killed 6 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.
