Congo refugees plead to world: 'Protect us'

Hungry, frightened Congolese refugees pleaded for protection from marauding fighters yesterday while foreign governments discussed aid but hesitated over sending more troops.

European, US and UN envoys have criss-crosssd the Great Lakes region trying to prevent a newly resurgent Tutsi rebellion in the eastern Congolese borderlands from escalating into a rerun of Democratic Republic of Congo's 1998-2003 war.

After a weekend diplomatic shuttle that took them to Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania, the French and British foreign ministers called for more international aid to Congo's North Kivu province, where an offensive by rebel general Laurent Nkunda has displaced tens of thousands of people.

A ceasefire by Nkunda appeared to be holding yesterday. At Kibati, north of the provincial capital Goma, refugees among 70,000 people sheltering there said they were desperate for protection and would welcome troops from Europe to bolster the 17,000 UN peacekeepers already deployed in Congo.

"We want to return to our village, but only if there is security. I have not eaten for six days," said one elderly woman, Rgwasa Nyakaruhije. "We would be very happy if they sent in a European Union force."

Around her, displaced civilians huddled in groups in the muddy grass, some under umbrellas or parasols.

"The urgent need for food, water, shelter and care must be covered through international mobilisation and the securing of routes to allow aid to reach all North Kivu," the French and British ministers, Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband, said in a joint statement after their visit.

But they stopped short of announcing a deployment of EU troops to Congo. France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, had mooted the proposal earlier in the week but encountered resistance from some member states.

Instead, they recommended reinforcing the UN peacekeeping force in Congo, already the biggest in the world but badly stretched across a nation the size of Western Europe.

"The UN is not providing any security. If the French soldiers came, they would be very welcome," said Zainabo Bunyurura, 40, who fled to Kibati from her home in Kibumba when the rebels attacked. She said they burned down her house.

The UN says Congo's army has also killed and looted.

Max Hadorn, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Congo, said restoring security was paramount.

"For us, it's less a question of being able to mobilise aid but rather of being able to enter different zones with security guaranteed," he said.

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 the 1998-2003 war in the vast, former Belgian colony, which is rich in copper, cobalt, gold and diamonds.