Since Sunday, at least 700 people are estimated to have died and over 2,800 injured in fighting in and around Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.
The figures come from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN. And the number is likely to rise, warns the UN, which has also documented two cases of deadly bombings against residential areas housing internally displaced persons.
In Goma, which has largely been besieged by M23, people are now taking care of their dead.
We do not want to live under these people, says a resident of the city of Goma to AFP about the rebels.
Sexual violence, where Congolese soldiers are also suspected to be perpetrators, has also been documented and is being verified, according to Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Continuing to Kinshasa
The Rwanda-backed M23's dramatic incursion into the province on Sunday has triggered a military and diplomatic crisis. The rebels claim they are hunting for people linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda – and are not interested in the valuable mineral resources of Congo-Kinshasa.
But exactly what M23's motives are is unclear.
We will continue the freedom march all the way to Kinshasa, said rebel leader Corneille Nangaa on Thursday.
The rebels are now reported to be moving south. In the two-million-strong city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu, queues of volunteers are forming to join a militia supporting the army's fight against M23. Young men are training on the city's arenas.
Near strategic airfield
The defense line runs about four miles north of Bukavu, near a strategically important military airfield. Congo-Kinshasa's President Felix Tshisekedi has promised a powerful military response to M23's advance.
The UN and several individual countries are urging Rwanda to withdraw the rebels, and the UK has threatened to review its aid. But Rwanda's President Paul Kagame denies allegations that his government supports M23.
M23 is not Rwandan – they are Congolese, he says.
The African cooperation organization SADC is holding an emergency summit on Friday due to the crisis, which has forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
The vast Congo-Kinshasa in Central Africa got its borders during the colonial era – without regard to the inhabitants and the traditional kingdoms that were then forced together.
The country is extremely rich in natural resources, but despite this, poverty has been great both during the colonial era and after independence from Belgium in 1960.
In 1998, war broke out after large numbers of refugees flowed into the country from Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and the civilian population was subjected to horrific abuses.
The war formally ended in 2003, but the struggle for control of the country's vast natural resources has continued and led to new outbreaks of violence at regular intervals, especially in the eastern parts of the country.
Source: UI/Landguiden
