Sawt Falasteen - Key DR Congo city on brink as Rwanda-backed fighters take airport

The main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has become a battleground since fighters from the Tutsi-led M23 armed group and Rwandan forces entered central Goma on Sunday night after a weeks-long advance through the region.

Days of intense fighting involving mortars and gunfire have left bodies in the streets in Goma while columns of M23 fighters marched through the eastern provincial capital.

It has not been clear which parts of Goma were under the control of Congolese forces or the Rwandan-backed M23, which claimed it had taken the city on Sunday night.

A security source told AFP that M23 fighters had taken the airport on Tuesday, adding that "more than 1,200 Congolese soldiers have surrendered and are confined" to the airport base of the UN's mission in DRC.

The lightning offensive marks a major escalation in DRC's mineral-rich east, which has been plagued by fighting between armed groups backed by regional rivals since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

It has also triggered a spiralling humanitarian crisis, with the UN warning of hundreds of thousands forced from their homes, serious food shortages, looted aid, overwhelmed hospitals and the potential spread of disease.

The streets of Goma, a city of one million which sits on the shores of Lake Kivu and on the border with Rwanda, were almost deserted on Tuesday after heavy fighting the day before.

Destin Jamaica Kela, one of around 1,200 people from Goma registered by Rwanda to have fled over the border in the last 24 hours, told AFP that "things changed very fast".

"Bombs were falling and killing other people everywhere, we saw dead bodies," the 24-year-old said.

- Protesters attack embassies -

On the other side of the country roughly the size of continental western Europe, protesters in the capital Kinshasa attacked the embassies of various nations.

Rwanda, France, Belgium, the United States, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa were among those targeted, with demonstrators torching tyres outside several.

The US embassy told its citizens to leave the country following the attacks while the European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas branded them as "unacceptable" and "deeply troubling".

At least 17 people have been killed and 367 wounded during two days of fighting, according to reports from hospitals.

"The humanitarian situation in and around Goma remains extremely worrying," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was striving to help respond to a massive influx of wounded to Goma's "overwhelmed" hospitals, warning some patients were "lying on the floor due to lack of space".

It also warned there could be "unimaginable consequences" if samples of Ebola and other pathogens held at a local laboratory in Goma were allowed to spread amid the fighting.

The violence around Goma has forced half a million people from their homes since the start of the year, according to the UN refugee agency.

- 'Lay down arms': African Union -

The UN Security Council was scheduled to meet later on Tuesday about the crisis.

After a previous meeting of the council on Sunday, the Congolese government expressed "dismay" at its "vague" statement, which stopped short of naming Rwanda.

At an emergency meeting on Tuesday, the African Union called on the M23 to "lay down arms", also without naming Rwanda.

The DRC has accused Rwanda of wanting to profit from the region's abundant minerals, which include gold, coltan, copper and cobalt, calling for stronger UN action.

Rwanda has denied the claims, saying its aim is to tackle an armed group called the FDLR, primarily composed of Hutu militants formed in the wake of the Rwandan genocide.

A total of 17 peacekeepers from a southern African regional force and the UN's DRC mission have been killed in the fighting.

Germany on Tuesday cancelled a planned meeting with Rwandan officials, slamming a "flagrant violation of international law".

The European Union meanwhile said it was giving 60 million euros ($62 million) in emergency aid to help people fleeing the fighting.

Kenya has announced a crisis summit on Wednesday to be attended by DR Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.

The M23 briefly occupied Goma at the end of 2012 and was defeated by Congolese forces and the UN the following year.

A ceasefire in August failed to keep the peace and Angola-mediated talks were abruptly cancelled last month.

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U.AlSharif--SF-PST