Congo’s largest church organizations met Wednesday with Rwanda-backed rebels in the country’s east in the latest push for peace and dialogue after weekslong fighting that saw the rebels seize the region’s largest city of Goma.

The recent fighting in eastern DRC, which has been scarred by violence for the last 30 years, has led to at least 2,900 deaths, according to the United Nations.

A Congolese child, displaced by recent clashes between the M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), prepares to leave the camp after being instructed by the M23 rebels to vacate the camps on the outskirts of Goma,

The Rwanda-backed rebels who captured a major city in eastern Congo have sought to reassure its residents about their safety.

(Reuters) -Representatives of Congo's powerful Catholic church met on Wednesday with a rebel leader whose Rwandan-backed M23 forces last month seized Goma, the biggest city in the country's east, and have continued advancing south.