By Benoit Nyemba and David Lewis KINSHASA (Reuters) -Rioters stormed embassies and started fires in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa on Tuesday, drawing tear gas from police, in an eruption of protests over a Rwandan-backed rebel offensive in the east.

United Nations officials say there were dead bodies on the streets of eastern Congo’s largest city where hospitals are overwhelmed and hundreds of thousands are fleeing gunfire and shelling.

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed 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, the Associated Press reported.

Many blame the United States, France and other allies for allowing neighboring Rwanda to fuel a conflict in the country’s east.

Protesters have attacked missions in the capital of the African country as anger grows about the advance of the M23 rebel group.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for a urgent cease-fire in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo saying Washington was "deeply troubled" by a recent escalation in the fighting.

KINSHASA: Vandalised embassies, looted supermarkets and piles of burning tyres marked chaotic demonstrations Tuesday (Jan 28) in DR Congo's capital Kinshasa to denounce the "inaction" of the international community over the conflict raging in Goma,

M23 rebels captured the key city of Goma in the eastern DRC Monday, forcing thousands of civilians to flee in the latest in a series of advances - Anadolu Ajansı

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has arrived in Congo's capital Kinshasa, an official at the presidency said on Thursday, as Rwanda-backed rebels consolidated control of Goma in the east of the African country.

Former president Thabo Mbeki says that for as long as the Democratic Republic of Congo refuses to look after the Rwandan-speaking Congolese population in the eastern part of the country, then military groups like M23 will continue to exist.

The scene is the result of the invasion of Goma on January 27th by M23, an armed group under the control of Rwanda, Congo’s neighbour, which abuts the city. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, has escalated a crisis whose origins go back decades.