Truce to end fighting in DR Congo

Last year's elections were supposed to end the DR Congo conflict

The army and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed a ceasefire in the town at the heart of recent fighting, the UN says.

The clashes around the eastern town of Sake had raised fears of a return to conflict in DR Congo, emerging from a five-year war.

UN peacekeepers say they are to take control of the town, which lies on the road to the North Kivu capital, Goma.

Some 200,000 people have fled fighting in the region this year, the UN says.

"[Rebel General Laurent] Nkunda's men, who tried to take Sake this morning, have agreed to withdraw into the hills," said Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, UN spokeswoman in North Kivu.

Civilians and soldiers report that the town was heavily shelled in the early hours of Thursday by the rebels.

The BBC's Arnaud Zajtman in Sake says there is a continuous stream of people leaving the town, silently walking towards Goma, 30km away, with goods on their heads and young children in their arms.

Thousands have fled, carrying all their belongings with them - mattresses, pots and shovels.

Helicopter gunship

UN emergency relief chief John Holmes has described the humanitarian situation in the region as deplorable.

Mr Holmes said fighting was confined to parts of the single province of North Kivu, but warned the crisis might worsen in a large country like DR Congo - the size of western Europe.

"If the fighting gets worse, what we really fear is another big wave of displacement and possibly the kind of atrocities that have gone with that in the past," Mr Holmes added.

Some four million people are believed to have died during DR Congo's five-year conflict, which officially ended in 2002.

Earlier, our correspondent in North Kivu said forces loyal to rebel General Laurent Nkunda government troops were surrounded in Katale, where the latest fighting began last week.

The army is using an attack helicopter against the rebels - the first time the government has used these in DR Congo, our correspondent says.

Extra troops were being sent to the region to help the army fight rebels led by a renegade general.

Rwandan warning

On Wednesday, some people attacked vehicles belonging to the UN Mission in Congo (Monuc) in Sake, accusing them of siding with the rebels.

The UN has some 17,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo - the largest such force in the world.

Profile: Gen Nkunda

In other parts of North Kivu, men loyal to Gen Nkunda have pulled out of villages near the Rwandan border, and were replaced by ethnic Hutu Rwandan rebels.

Ethnic tension following the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda lies at the heart of the fighting.

Gen Nkunda says he is protecting Congolese Tutsis from the forces who carried out the genocide and then crossed the border.

Rwanda has twice invaded DR Congo, saying it wants to stop attacks by Hutu rebels and our correspondent says the news that these militias have moved into villages on its border could antagonise Rwanda.

In the Rwandan capital, Kigali, Foreign Minister Charles Murigande said his government was ready to mediate between the two forces but also issued a warning.

"Rwanda will be extremely concerned if the genocidal militants of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) profit from this unrest to use their military force against our government," he said, according to the AFP news agency.

"We will take whatever measures are necessary to dissuade whoever threatens the integrity of Rwanda."

Elections last year, won by President Joseph Kabila, were supposed to draw a line under years of conflict in DR Congo.