So far, 2,000 bodies have been retrieved from the streets of Goma in recent days, and 900 bodies remain in morgues at hospitals in Goma, says Vivian van de Perre, deputy chief of the UN mission Monusco.
The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) announces that they are closely following the situation – "including the serious escalation of violence over the past few weeks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in and around the provincial capital of North Kivu, Goma", it says in a statement.
Last week's capture of Goma by the rebel group M23 was a significant escalation in the mineral-rich region that has been plagued by conflict involving dozens of armed groups for three decades.
M23, which has its roots in neighboring Rwanda, declared a unilateral ceasefire on Monday, which appears to have been broken. The rebels are reported to have captured the mining town of Nyabibwe, located ten miles from the provincial capital of South Kivu, Bukavu, with the support of Rwandan forces.
Several ceasefires between the rebel movement and the Congolese army have been declared in recent years, only to be systematically broken.
The presidents of Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda, Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, are to meet on Saturday at a regional summit in Tanzania. A day earlier, the UN Human Rights Council will convene at the request of Congo-Kinshasa to discuss the ongoing conflict.
