More than 7,000 people have died this year as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have captured unprecedented amounts of territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo.

Violence raging in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed "more than 7,000 compatriots", many of them civilians, since last month, the Congolese premier said Monday.

The UN human rights chief accused Rwanda-backed rebels who seized a second major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of killing children and attacking hospitals and warehouses storing humanitarian aid.

Some 7,000 people have died since January in fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the prime minister of the DRC told a high-level meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday,