Congo Rebels Close in on Eastern Capital of Goma

Congolese rebels closed in on the eastern town of Goma today, causing panic among residents and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of international aid workers and UN staff.

Around 45,000 internal refugees, most of whom had only arrived on foot a day earlier, fled a displaced person's camp near Goma as forces loyal to the Tutsi warlord Laurent Nkunda battled international peacekeepers and government troops.

After the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon warned of a humanitarian crisis of "catastrophic dimensions", the rebels announced tonight that they were declaring a unilateral ceasefire "to avoid panicking the population of Goma".

Nkunda's men have already captured a string of key towns near Goma in North Kivu province and raised fears of a return to full-scale war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The national army has been routed, and troops were reported to be fleeing Goma.

Tension between Congo and Rwanda, which it accuses of supporting Nkunda, also increased sharply, as they traded accusations over cross-border artillery attacks. The US said that while Rwanda was not directly involved in the fighting, its territory was being used to support the rebels.

The rebel advance has caused alarm in the international community. The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, called for the deployment of a hundreds-strong EU force to eastern Congo, while the UN security council expressed "gave concern" at the fighting and called an emergency meeting to discuss an urgent request for more troops for the UN peacekeeping force.

The US has dispatched its top Africa envoy, Jendayi Frazer, for talks in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. Louis Michel, the EU's development aid commissioner was also there to meet President Joseph Kabila.

Congo's previous wars between 1997 and 2003 sucked in several neighboring countries and caused the greatest loss of life anywhere in the world since the second world war, with more than five million deaths, mainly from hunger and illness. Since then the mineral-rich east of the country has remained restive, despite a peace agreement signed by all the main rebel groups in January this year.

Nkunda, who is though to have about 5,000 fighters in his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), claims to be protecting the minority Tutsi population in the east from Hutu militias linked to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Despite signing the peace deal he refuses to disarm, accusing government forces of breaking the ceasefire agreement and collaborating with the Hutu rebels.

Both the army and the CNDP rebels have a deep mistrust of MONUC, the 17,000-strong peacekeeping force, and both forces have separately attacked it in recent days. MONUC has pledged to defend the North Kivu towns of Goma, Sake, Masisi and Rutshuru, which were abandoned by the Congolese forces on Tuesday, from Nkunda's fighters. But Alain Doss, MONUC's chief, said the force was "stretched to the limit" and has requested additional support.

After coming under much criticism for failing to protect civilians, MONUC attack helicopters fired on Nkunda's forces today in Kibumba, 19 miles north of Goma, stalling the rebel progress.

"We were positioned just 15 kilometers from town, but MONUC engaged us with their helicopter gunships," Amani Babu, a senior CNDP officer told Agence France Presse before the ceasefire announcement. "We think in two or three days we will be able to take the town of Goma."

Aid agencies say that would be a disaster. Some 250,000 people have already been forced from their homes in North Kivu this year. Tens of thousands have had to flee their homes or temporary shelters on foot this week. Some 30,000 arrived at a makeshift camp in Kibati, six miles north of Goma, in recent days, "exhausted and traumatized". But the camp emptied this afternoon when the refugees saw government forces retreating south "fairly fast, and in fairly large numbers", according to Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency. "The whole camp was packing up and leaving," he said.

The atmosphere in Goma was extremely tense before the ceasefire announcement. There were reports of government troops firing into the air and commandeering vehicles. Civilians hurled rocks at a UN compound near the airport as rumors swirled that the town was about to be overrun. Emmanuel de Merode, the director of Virunga national park, which is directly north of Goma, said in a telephone interview from the town that gunfire from the surrounding hills could be heard for much of the day.

"There has been movement of government troops out of the town, which caused panic among the population," he said.