Rwandan-backed armed group M23 announced a humanitarian "ceasefire" from Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo's perennially explosive east, days before a planned crisis meeting between the Congolese and Rwandan leaders.

The AFC/M23 rebel coalition announced late on Monday that it would implement a unilateral ceasefire starting on Tuesday. The group, backed by thousands of troops from neighbouring Rwanda, seized Goma, the main city in eastern DRC, last week, with the United Nations estimating 900 people were killed, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

The city of 2 million people is at the heart of a region home to trillions of dollars in mineral wealth and remains in rebel control.