Aid agencies scrambled to help thousands of people displaced by fighting in east Congo but many were stranded despite an appeal by African leaders for a ceasefire.
Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda welcomed a call for a ceasefire and humanitarian corridor and the UN force urged rebel and pro-government militias to leave the town of Rutshuru after a spate of killings by both sides.
But aid workers in North Kivu province were cautious.
‘We urgently need to get into these places and deliver assistance,’ the UN World Food Programme's Marcus Prior said.
Fighting between Tutsi rebels and pro-government forces went on despite a unilateral ceasefire Nkunda declared last week, a few days into an offensive against the provincial capital Goma that sent civilians fleeing for their lives.
Sporadic bursts of gunfire were heard early on Saturday near Kibati, 12 km north of Goma, where more serious fighting between Nkunda's rebels and Congo's army halted food distribution and vaccinations by UN agencies yesterday.
Nkunda's revolt against Congo's government, which he says sides with local militias and Rwandan Hutu rebels against his minority Tutsi community, has displaced over one million in North Kivu in two years, an estimated 250,000 since September alone.
