KEY POINTS:
Along the red dirt roads looping in and out of the jungle, they trooped in their thousands.
The women clutching infants to their chests and balancing rolled-up mattresses, blankets and pots on their heads. Any child old enough to walk carried a jerry can of water or dragged a sack of food.
Many of these Congolese have lost count of times they have fled the fighting that has racked the east of the country for 15 years.
But yesterday, as rebels closed in on the provincial capital Goma, and government troops appeared to be in a full-scale retreat, the refugees loaded up the few possessions they could carry and began another long march to what they hope will, this time, be safety.
About 30,000 people arrived at a makeshift shelter north of the city in hours, tripling the size of the Kibati camp, said the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). "It's chaos up there," spokesman Ron Redmond said.
Indeed it is chaos across much of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, since the rebels began a new offensive at the weekend. Government troops have been heading south, away from the front line. The world's biggest peacekeeping mission has found itself under attack, with local people hurling stones at the blue helmets, angry at the UN failure to protect them from the violence.
Some foreign aid workers have tried to evacuate from hotspots only to find irate masses barring their way. Others are trying to juggle the extra demands of the crisis, with one hand tied behind their backs.
"We're going to have to bring a lot more supplies and equipment into this area," said Redmond. "At the same time we're restricted because of the security and how many people we can get involved in this operation."
Even before the latest violence, eastern Congo was in the grip of a major humanitarian disaster with 850,000 internal refugees in North Kivu.
The man who has lit the fuse is a renegade general, Laurent Nkunda. With his tall, lanky frame and glasses perched on the end of his long nose, Nkunda fits every stereotype about the Tutsis of Africa's Great Lakes region for whom he says he is fighting.
Nkunda claims the Congolese Government has not protected his minority tribe from a Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after executing the 1994 genocide - and so it is up to him. On Monday his rebels launched a fresh assault on government positions in North Kivu province and the so-called National Congress for the Defence of the People has edged ever closer to Goma.
"Our men are surrounding Goma, but we have not yet gone in," CNDP spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said.
"Do not expect us to stay there with our arms crossed for very long though," Bisimwa warned. "We cannot continue to accept Hutu militias controlling these areas. We must make sure our people are safe, so if we have to go in to protect them, then we will."
In theory the battle between the Government and Nkunda should be one-sided.
The Congolese Army has an estimated 20,000 troops in the region, compared to a rebel fighting force of about 6000.
Yet witnesses have reported Congolese government soldiers fleeing the battle zone.
Even the Army's commander of operations in North Kivu yesterday admitted the going was getting tough. "The situation is very serious. It won't be much longer before I have to leave here," Colonel Delphin Kahimbi told Reuters.
The rebels' spokesman accused the Congolese Army of not only retreating from the towns of Kiwanja, Rutshuru and Goma, but of handing them over to Hutu militias operating under the banner of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
UN officials and independent observers poured cold water on this alleged transfer of power, saying it was part of the rebels' propaganda strategy to cast the conflict in genocidal terms.
The rebels say they want face-to-face talks with the Government to resolve their issues, something the President Joseph Kabila has refused - until now.
"It would appear that there is some movement in that direction but there is no confirmation yet," said Michel Bonnardeaux, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force, Monuc. "We are certainly hoping that this is a show of force from the rebels ... It would appear to be an attempt at strengthening their bargaining position."
Monuc is the world's biggest peacekeeping mission, but with just 17,000 troops in a country the size of Western Europe, resources are stretched thin.
CONFLICT IN THE CONGO
THE COUNTRY
* The Democratic Republic of Congo is the size of Europe. Travelling from top to bottom is equal to a trip from Scotland to Sicily; from west to east like driving from Ireland to Russia.
* Its abundant supplies of coal, iron ore, bauxite, timber, diamonds and gold have been fought over for generations.
* The former Belgian colony was the setting for Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness.
* Apart from King Leopold II of Belgium, Congo's most famous President was the leopardskin cap-wearing Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled for 30 years and renamed it Zaire.
* Congo's war was the world's worst conflict since 1945. Although it officially ended in 2002, about 1200 people still die daily. Malnutrition, malaria and cholera will wipe out the equal of half of Auckland's population this year.
* In 2006, Congo's first free elections since 1960 returned the incumbent President, Joseph Kabila, to power.
THE FIGHTING
* Tutsi rebels have captured the strategic village of Kibumba.
* They are advancing towards the regional capital of Goma, the home of 600,000 people.
* Congolese troops and United Nations tanks are retreating.
* About 30,000 people have fled, tripling the size of a camp in Kibati. Some have crossed the border into Uganda.
* Government soldiers fired on civilians and trapped foreign aid workers trying to escape the town of Rutshuru. Peacekeepers were forced to "respond".
* UN helicopter gunships fired rockets but rebels are using civilians as shields.
* The rebels also are fighting around Rugari, a town between Goma and Rutshuru, as well as northwest of Goma around Sake.
THE COMBATANTS
* The UN has 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo - the biggest mission in the world.
* Congo's Army has about 20,000 troops.
* Laurent Nkunda's rebels number about 6000.
- INDEPENDENT, AP
