Desperate situation in Kisangani

Aid organisations in the eastern Congolese city of Kisangani are trying to cope with the aftermath of six days of clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan troops.

Thousands of people who fled the fighting are reported to be moving back.

A BBC correspondent in the region says war debris is littering the streets, and hospitals and health centres are packed with the sick and injured. The relief organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres says it is setting up a cholera centre to try to prevent an outbreak of the disease. The International Red Cross says that the number of civilians killed in the fighting could reach two-hundred-and-fifty, with well over a-thousand injured. Priorty was being given to collecting bodies of soldiers and civilians lying in the streets. Much of the infrastructure of the city is damaged, and electricity and water supplies are cut, leaving the six-hundred-thousand inhabitants hungry, thirsty and prone to epidemics. Rwandan and Ugandan forces are now on either side of a river, with a small United Nations contingent manning the bridge that separates the two sides.

The two armies, which support rival Congolese rebel factions, blame each other for starting the fighting

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service