The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to send more than 3,000 additional troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo, bolstering a mission that is already its largest peacekeeping force in the world.
Government troops patrol the road between Sake and Goma in eastern Congo Wednesday. It follows calls from the U.N.'s own peacekeeping experts, Human Rights Watch, and local human rights groups in Congo for more troops to support the 17,000 U.N. soldiers already there.

A coalition of 44 organizations in eastern Congo wrote to the Security Council on Tuesday, pleading for more troops urgently. "This would help to prevent the atrocities that continue to be committed against civilians on an ever greater scale here in North Kivu [province], on the border of Rwanda and Uganda," the letter said.

Fighting between government forces, allied militias and rebels under the command of Laurent Nkunda has forced an estimated 250,000 people to flee their homes since August.

"Since August 28, fighting has intensified in many areas, causing deaths, rapes, lootings, forced recruitment and further displacements of civilian populations," the coalition wrote.

"The population has thus been immersed in unspeakable suffering. In the last few days, fighting has drawn closer to large populated areas, such as the town of Goma.

"Fighting has also invaded and torn apart the region of Rutshuru, particularly in the town of Kiwanja, where hundreds of civilian deaths have now been recorded."

Another aid group, World Vision, says the conflict in the African country is the deadliest since World War II. The country has been at war since 1997.

"The last decade of conflict has resulted in some 4 million deaths; an estimated 1,200 people die every day due to ongoing epidemics and war-related causes; some aid agencies estimate upward of 1,400 deaths per day," World Vision said in a statement. Video Watch efforts to avoid a health catastrophe in Congo »

Georgette Gagnon, the executive director for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said she would like to see the European Union send troops because "is going to take three months [for the United Nations] to get anybody on the ground." Gangon added: "The EU has done this in the past for the Congo, and they have the capacity to get people on the ground within two weeks." But the European Union has not announced any plans to send troops. A spokeswoman for the British mission to the United Nations, said London is "not ruling in or out EU forces," instead focusing on strengthening the U.N. presence in eastern Congo