More than 100 killed in Kisangani

Fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo is continuing for a fifth day, despite a United Nations-brokered ceasefire.

You can see bodies in the streets. The situation is extremely bad

Red Cross worker Alexandre Liebeskind

More than 100 civilians have died and 700 others injured in the clashes in the north-eastern city of Kisangani, say the Red Cross.

Journalists in the rebel-held city say water supplies are running low, and have described how civilians wounded in the fighting are being treated by hospital doctors who lack basic medical supplies.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that both sides had agreed to a truce on Thursday. But after a temporary lull, fighting resumed.

Kisangani's Roman Catholic cathedral has been damaged by shelling

On Friday, the two armies once again traded artillery and machine-gun fire.

A BBC correspondent says many Congolese regard the Rwandans and Ugandans as occupying forces, with no right to a stake in the city.

Commanders blamed

The head of the UN team in Kisangani, Colonel Danilo Paiva, said commanders on the ground were blocking the ceasefire agreement.

He accused them of "committing a genocide against the city", which he said had been hit by at least 1,000 shells since Monday.

Uganda and Rwanda are supposed to be allies in the rebellion against Congolese President Laurent Kabila.

The latest fighting in the mineral-rich city broke out on Monday despite last month's troop withdrawal agreement which followed earlier clashes.

On Wednesday, Rwandan officers said they were bringing in reinforcements. They accused the Ugandans of starting recent fighting and said the Ugandans already had five battalions on the north-western outskirts of town.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had apparently secured Thursday's truce in telephone conversations with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni.

Peacekeepers

The UN Security Council had called for an immediate halt to the hostilities, saying it could threaten plans to deploy a 5,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Congo.

Representatives of all the countries and rebel movements involved in the war met in Zambia on Thursday to discuss the planned deployment.

The Political Committee, set up to implement the 1999 Lusaka peace accords, will next week advise the Security Council on whether the conditions exist for it to go ahead.

Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who brokered last year's deal, said the fighting threatened the peace process.

"This is a very sad turn of events. The whole thing defies logic and is a big shame to Africa," he said.

War violence

A US-based refugee organisation estimates that 1.7 million people have died as a direct or indirect result of fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the war started nearly two years ago.

The International Rescue Committee say that according to mortality surveys conducted in the region, 200,000 deaths were attributable to acts of violence, while the vast majority were due to the war-related collapse of the region's health infrastructure and delivery of its health and nutrition services.

"On average, some 2,600 people are dying every day in this war and our research found that the first months of the year 2000 were even worse than 1999," said the study's author, epidemiologist Les Roberts.