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.

Rebels in eastern Congo's largest city, Goma, began a ceasefire on Tuesday and people rushed to bury some 2,000 victims of last week's battles for the city as they feared the spread of disease.

A rebel group that claimed to have captured the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, after fighting with the Congolese military has left hundreds of people dead.

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.

Over 2,000 bodies bow require burial in Goma after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took over the Democratic of Congo city, inflaming a decade-old conflict and humanitarian crisis. Congo’s communications minister Patrick Muyaya on Tuesday confirmed the mass burial,