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Angolan Troops Reported Assisting Congolese Soldiers
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The conflict is fueled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 Rwanda genocide, when 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect Tutsis in Congo from Rwandan Hutu rebels who participated in the genocide and fled to Congo afterward.
Violence in eastern Congo has driven 250,000 people from their homes since August. New York-based Human Rights Watch says at least 100 have died in the past two months.
The latest fighting broke out Friday near the town of Kibati, six miles north of Goma.
Distant machine-gun fire was audible in Goma. The road toward the city was again lined with thousands of refugees.
The refugees, who are sleeping in the open amid daily tropical rainstorms, said they have not eaten since Tuesday and have received no food, water or other help from the peacekeepers.
A top African Union official criticized the U.N. peacekeeping force Friday for failing to protect civilians.
"MONUC has failed," said Eddie Kwizera, a top aide to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg said the overstretched force has fewer than 300 peacekeepers in the area around Kiwanja and nearby Rutshuru, a small town near Kiwanja that rebels seized last week. Rutshuru is about 45 miles north of Goma.
