Nearly 3,000 people were killed over the last week as rebels captured a key city in one of the deadliest battles in the Central African country in decades.

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

The U.N. health agency says that fighting last week between Congolese government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels in the major eastern city of Goma left at least 900 people dead, raising the previously