Fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo intensifies, leaving thousands homeless and without food

THE Red Cross last night described the situation in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as "catastrophic", with tens of thousands of civilians, many of them starving, exhausted and thirsty, on the move.

More than 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the region in recent weeks following the collapse of a United Nations-brokered ceasefire.

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was checking reports that several camps for displaced people near the rebel-held Rutshuru zone, which normally housed 50,000 civilians, had been forcibly emptied, looted and burned.

Human rights groups appealed for reinforcements to the UN force in the DRC to try to stop the violence.

France and Britain launched a European Union initiative yesterday to secure peace in the area and the EU may also fly in food for tens of thousands of civilians fleeing attacks by rebels and government soldiers.

Pierre-Emmanuel Ducruet, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said: "The situation is catastrophic. There is no other word."

He said tens of thousands of civilians were on the move around the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma, at the heart of one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign affairs chief, said European planes could be used to deliver aid to the DRC's eastern North Kivu province, where an offensive by Tutsi rebels has caused chaos and raised fears of a return to all-out war in the region.

Three days ago, the rebel chief, General Laurent Nkunda, declared a temporary ceasefire after his forces fought to the gates of Goma, driving back the DRC's army and putting pressure on the UN peacekeeping force.

Yesterday, taking advantage of the lull in the fighting, refugees streamed out of the city to seek safer places to stay, plus food and aid. Aid agencies restarted operations, handing out water and food at Kibati, 12 miles north of Goma.

"Since Monday, we've had neither water nor anything to eat. There are groups of people sleeping out in the open… We've been abandoned," said Deo Gracias Makombe, a local chief from Burumba village who was displaced by the fighting along with his people.

An estimated one million people have been forced from their homes in North Kivu by two years of violence that has persisted, despite the end of a 1998-2003 war in the vast former Belgian colony, which is rich in copper, cobalt, gold and diamonds.

EU diplomats said any European intervention in the DRC was likely to be humanitarian rather than purely military.

Mr Solana said EU forces would "very probably" secure Goma airport to fly in aid.

"If the airport is open, several European countries are ready to do that. They have already made commitments from a humanitarian point of view," he said.

The world's largest UN peacekeeping force, 17,000-strong, is deployed in the DRC, but has been badly stretched by ongoing rebel and militia violence on several fronts and it was not able to halt Nkunda's rapid advance on Goma.

Nkunda, who claims that he is fighting to defend the Tutsi minority in the DRC's violence-plagued east, had abandoned a January peace deal and has called for a neutral mediator to be brought in to negotiate.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Ramtane Lamamra, the African Union's peace and security commissioner, said it was Nkunda's forces that had launched the offensive triggering the violence.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, reiterated his "full support" for the DRC's president, Joseph Kabila.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, said the ceasefire must be kept.

European and US diplomatic envoys lobbied the DRC and Rwanda to seek a definitive end to the long-running conflict on their borders.

WHAT NEXT

DAVID Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, were last night heading for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid intense diplomatic efforts to end the latest fighting between rebels and government forces.

Earlier, the Department for International Development said it was sending a further £5 million in aid to provide food, water and shelter for refugees.

Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner will use their visit to impress upon the DRC president, Joseph Kabila, and Paul Kagame, the president of neighbouring Rwanda, of the need to use their influence to end the conflict.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner would be emphasising how precarious the situation has become.

"They will impress upon the leaders of both countries the seriousness of the situation (and] the need to engage urgently to find a solution to the underlying problem and to take stock of the situation," he said.