HUNDREDS of wounded people continued to pour into overcrowded hospitals in Goma today as fighting rages in the Democratic Republic of Congo between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels.

“They will get infected before we can treat them all,” said Florence Douet, an operating room nurse at Bethesda Hospital, as she attended to patients with varying degrees of injuries.

Since the start of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels’ offensive on Goma on January 26, more than 700 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 wounded in the city and its vicinity, officials say. 

Bethesda Hospital alone said it receives more than 100 new patients each day, overstretching its capacity of 250 beds.

Goma, now under rebel control, hosts many of the close to 6.5 million people displaced by the conflict, one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

As more people arrived with gunshot or shrapnel wounds, many were forced to share beds while others lay on the floor, writhing in pain as they waited for medical attention.

The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to United Nations experts, far more than in 2012, when they first captured Goma before withdrawing under international pressure. 

They are the most powerful of the more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology.

Unlike in 2012, the rebels say they now plan to march to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, 1,000 miles away, describing the country as a failed state under President Felix Tshisekedi.

Medical workers at Kyeshero Hospital in Goma say they are treating an increasing number of patients with bullet wounds.

“We removed 48 bullets yesterday,” said surgeon Johnny Kasangati on Friday as he examined a patient under a tent.

Kyeshero is also severely overcrowded, hitting more than 200 per cent of its capacity on some days, according to Joseph Amadomon Sagara, project co-ordinator for Doctors Without Borders, which runs the hospital.

Congo’s government has confirmed 773 deaths and 2,880 injured persons at morgues and hospitals. Kinshasa said it feared the likely death toll could be much higher, fearing mass graves.