Unidentified people in civilian clothing enter UN base in Goma, hand over weapons to the Uruguayan Blue Helmets that are part of the MUNESCO peacekeeping force. Video credit: Social media.

The UN on Tuesday said the humanitarian situation in the besieged DR Congo city of Goma was "extremely worrying" amid mass displacement, food shortages, looted aid, overflowing hospitals and widespread sexual violence.

There are growing international calls for peace talks to end the escalation of violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fate of the economic and trading hub Goma is still unclear. UN officials have said the situation is chaotic with fighting continuing in parts of the city.

Bodies are lying on the streets. Medical staff in overwhelmed hospitals are treating hundreds of wounded civilians against the backdrop of gunfire and mortar fire.

Speaking to BBC Newshour while being locked down in a UN bunker in the city, the deputy head of the UN force, Vivian van de Perre, said the M23 rebels had "established" themselves in Goma, but were still facing "pockets of resistance".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Wednesday, Netanyahu said in a statement, amid the Gaza ceasefire and a regional diplomatic push.

Thousands fled the city of Goma on Monday as fighting raged between Congolese forces and rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda, who claimed to have captured eastern Congo’s largest regional hub.

"Active zones of combat have spread to all quarters of the city, all the neighborhoods of the city," Lemarquis, the deputy U.N. envoy and top U.N. aid official in the DRC, told reporters in New York via video from Kinshasa.

A day after the rebels marched into the lakeside city, protesters in the capital attacked a UN compound and embassies including those of Rwanda, France and the United States, expressing anger at what

At least 10 prisoners were killed while escaping from Goma's Munzene central prison by setting fire, UN-backed Radio Okapi reported, adding that approximately 4,400 inmates escaped on Monday morning -

It has been a humiliating week for nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries recruited to fight on the side of the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their surrender following a rebel assault on the eastern city of Goma has also shattered the dreams of those who signed up for the job to earn big money.