More than 150 female prisoners were raped and burned to death during a jailbreak last week when fleeing male inmates set fire to a prison in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations spokesperson has said.

A senior U.N. official in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Wednesday that nearly 3,000 people have been killed in a fighting between M23 militants and the national army over control of a key eastern city.

The Rwanda-backed group known as M23 is believed to have been responsible for the incident following its takeover of the city of Goma

Footage from the jailbreak shows people fleeing from the building as black smoke rises into the air More than 100 female prisoners were raped and then burned alive during a jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma,