Struggling to help DR Congo victims

By Peter Greste
BBC News, Goma

Tens of thousands are in desperate need of help in eastern Congo.

An aid convoy has finally reached camps for the displaced north of Goma, driving first past government troops and then those of the CNDP, the militia led by the rebel commander Laurent Nkunda.

The convoy with its escort of UN peacekeeping soldiers passed unhindered to CNDP territory.

The checkpoints were littered with all the detritus of war.

There were piles of empty tank shells, empty ammunition boxes, casings from rocket-propelled grenades - and disturbingly, the bodies of three or four government soldiers lying in ditches.

It is testimony to the scale of the fighting over past week or so.

Ghost town

One camp in particular is at Kibumba.

Six months ago the camp was heaving with 30,000 displaced people, who saw it as a safer place than their villages.

Enlarge Map

Now the camp is like a ghost town.

There were scraps of timber and plastic sheeting lying around - but no sign of the displaced people.

The CNDP says refugees went back voluntarily to their homes.

But anecdotal evidence from the local community suggests that camp dwellers fled into forest, where they are now hiding.

It means they are out of reach of aid workers.

There was no government presence to be seen in the area.

In the convoy was a team from the British medical charity Merlin, which runs five health centres.

The team leader, Sean Rafter, said they were particularly concerned for the staff who stayed through the fighting.

"That is our priority now - to ensure their security. Obviously that goes hand in hand with continuing our programme."

Their other priority is to try to get into the forests and find the thousands of displaced people.

Ceasefire cracks

At this stage there is more hope than optimism that the ceasefire between the government and rebels will hold.

The problem is that the status quo cannot continue.

General Nkunda has a stranglehold on Goma, and for the government that is an unsustainable situation.

There is enormous pressure on diplomats to resolve the situation fast.

The UN is hoping to get the first substantial aid convoys in within the next few days.

And of course all this is conditional on the current ceasefire holding. Already there are signs of cracks.

There were reports of clashes to the north of Gen Nkunda's enclave.

Those clashes will not directly affect the convoys but they are a worrying sign.