Nearly three thousand people have been killed in the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the United Nations, after the provincial capital was captured by rebels following days of fierce fighting with the Congolese army.

The Rwanda-backed rebels who captured a major city in eastern Congo have sought to reassure its residents about their safety.

Over 2,000 bodies require burial in Goma after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took over the Democratic Republic of Congo city last week, inflaming a decade-old conflict and humanitarian crisis, Congo's communications minister Patrick Muyaya said late on Monday.

STORY: The morgues in Goma are overflowing, after Rwanda-backed rebels seized the biggest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week.Relative calm has now returned to the provincial capital after the rebel Congo River Alliance,

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed on Monday they captured eastern Congo’s strategic city of Goma, the hub of a region containing trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that remains largely untapped.

The Rwanda-backed rebels who seized eastern Congo's key city of Goma announced a unilateral ceasefire in the region Monday for humanitarian reasons, following calls for a safe corridor for aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.