GOMA, Congo, Feb 3, (AP): Hundreds of wounded people have poured into overcrowded hospitals in Goma, a major city in eastern Congo, as fighting rages on between government forces and the Rwanda-backed rebels who say they captured the city of around 2 million people. "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 M23 rebels’ offensive on Goma on Jan 6, more than 700 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 have been 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. Bethesda is one of several hospitals in Goma that The Associated Press visited that has inadequate personnel and supplies.

The city hosts many of the close to 6.5 million people displaced by the conflict, which is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. As more people arrived at the hospitals with gunshot wounds or shrapnel injuries, many were forced to share beds while others lay on the floor, writhing in pain from their wounds as they waited for medical attention.

"This is the first time I’m experiencing this," said Patrick Bagamuhunda, who was wounded in the fighting. "This war has caused a lot of damage, but at least we are still breathing.” The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma. They are the most potent 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, when the rebels first captured Goma and held it for days, they say they now plan to march to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) away, describing the country as a failed state under President Félix Tshisekedi. The fighting in Congo is deeply rooted in ethnic conflict. M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo.

Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide. Medical workers at Kyeshero Hospital in Goma say they are treating an increasing number of patients with bullet wounds. "We removed 48 bullets yesterday,” Johnny Kasangati, a surgeon at the hospital, said on Friday as he examined a patient under a tent.