A rebel alliance claimed the capture of the biggest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich eastern region this week, pushing back against resistance from government troops backed by regional and UN intervention forces.

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.

Tens of thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are fleeing towns in the east of the country as rebel forces close in on the city of Goma. Explosions and gunshots were heard in city - home to more than a million people - late on Sunday evening,