The UN says at least 700 people were killed in intensive fighting in the crowd, the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, from Sunday.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that 2,800 people had been injured because the M23 rebels – supported by Rwanda – captured the capital of North Kiva Province.
The rebels are said to move south towards Bukavu, the capital of the southern Kivu.
The conflict in the eastern DR Congo dates from the 1990s, but soon escalated in recent weeks.
M23, which consists of ethnic Tuts, says that they are fighting for minority rights, while Dr. Konga says that rebels supported in Rwanda are looking for control of the great mineral wealth of the Eastern region.
On Friday, Dujarric said that the accident information came from an assessment of the World Health Organization and his partners, together with the Dr. Kong, between Sunday and Thursday.
The UN spokesman also warned that the number of death deaths would increase further.
In an attempt to stop M23’s progress, the Dr. Kong army set a defensive line on the way between Gom and Bukavu, according to the AFP news agency.
Hundreds of civilian volunteers were reported to defense of Bukavu.
One young man said AFP: “I’m ready to die for my country.”
Jean -jacques Purusi Sadiki, Governor of the South Kivu – M23 Province Marsh – said Reuters news agency that the government army and its allies had retained the rebels, although this claim was not independent.
Earlier this week, the M23 vowed to continue his offensive until he reached the capital of Kinshas, about 2,600 KM (1,600 miles) in the west.
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, Foreign Minister, told the BBC that Rwanda illegally occupied his country and tries to orchestrate changes in the regime.
Wagner said that the international community allowed President Rwanda Paul Kagama for decades of impunity and that he had failed to consider him responsibility for violation of international law.
Government spokeswoman Rwanda Yolande Makolo denied the charges, saying that the troops of the country were arranged only to prevent a conflict that had poured into its territory.
“We are not interested in the war, we are not interested in annexation, we are not interested in changing the regime,” Makolo told the BBC program Newsday.
The UN experts estimated that Rwanda had between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers who operated with the M23 in Eastern DR Congo last year.
On Friday, the regional block of the Southern African Development Community (Sadac) declared his support Dr. Congo at a crisis meeting in Zimbabwe.
In a statement, the 16-member group “again confirmed its solidarity and an unwavering commitment to continue supporting DRC in search of the protection of its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Sadc sent peace troops, primarily from South Africa, in Dr. Congo to fight armed groups like M23 and renew peace in the region rich in minerals after a decade of unrest.
Sixteen soldiers from the southern African countries were killed in conflicts with M23 around Gom last week.
The fighting also worsened the humanitarian crisis in Eastern Dr. Kong.
Shelley Thakral, from the UN World Food Program, said the residents of the city are running out of food, clean water and medical supplies.
“The supply chain has been strangled at the moment if you are considering approaching land, approaching the air, when everything is closed,” she told AFP.
Since the beginning of 2025, more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
DR Congo is the second largest country of Africa – about two -thirds of Western Europe – and borders on nine different countries.
Previous conflicts in the country in the 1990s attracted themselves in several neighbors and were named after the African world wars.
