Congo’s leader has called on young people to enlist in the army to help fight Rwanda-backed rebels attempting to seize more territory in the country’s conflict-battered east.

Much of the beleagured city of Goma was calm early Wednesday morning, after a day during which thousands of fleeing people hunkered down by roadsides as missiles flew and injured people streamed to overwhelmed hospitals.

Rebels led by the M23 group claim to have taken control of Goma, a key city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.