Fierce fighting between government and rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo is causing a humanitarian catastrophe, the Red Cross has said.
It said the number of displaced people was growing by the hour and that the precarious security situation was making it difficult to deliver aid.
Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to end the crisis, which has displaced a total of 250,000 people.
A tense ceasefire is holding in and around the eastern city of Goma.

Laurent Nkunda is a former General in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo

UNITED NATIONS | U.N. peacekeepers are spread too thinly through eastern Congo to protect civilians or quell the fighting between rebel and government forces, U.N. officials warned Thursday.
The assessment came while thousands of Congolese took advantage of a fragile day-old cease-fire to flee the regional capital of Goma in eastern Congo.

KILIMANYOKA, Congo – The Congolese army said troops from Rwanda have crossed the nearby border and attacked its soldiers Wednesday in support of a minority Tutsi rebellion, as thousands of refugees cowered from the shelling just a few miles down the road.
The military spokesman for Rwanda’s Tutsi-led government immediately denied the Congolese allegations.
A helicopter gunship from the United Nations mission flew high in the sky toward the battlefield and Uruguayan peacekeepers deployed on a hilltop ridge.

A UN spokeswoman has said peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have used helicopter gunships to attack fighters trying to take a village north of Goma.
Sylvie van den Wildenberg said on Monday that the troops had fired at rebel forces advancing on Kibumba – about 45km north of Goma.
The UN has maintained a 17,000-strong force – the largest in its peacekeeping operations – in Africa’s largest and mineral-rich country since armed conflict there started in 1998.

KINSHASA, – Congolese rebels launched a new offensive on Sunday, defying the U.N. Security Council and for the first time seizing the headquarters of a park that is home to many of the world’s last mountain gorillas, officials said.
The U.N. Security Council condemned Congolese Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda last week for calling for a national rebellion, and urged all armed groups in the huge country’s violent eastern provinces to lay down their arms.

KINSHASA, – Democratic Republic of Congo created new senior defence and reconstruction posts in a new government named on Sunday, but other key portfolios such as mines and finance were unchanged, state television said.
A decree from President Joseph Kabila read out on TV named a new defence minister and created a new post of deputy prime minister for defence and security, bolstering the focus on security on a day eastern rebels launched a fresh offensive.

GOMA, Congo – The United Nations says rebels have fired rockets at two vehicles carrying peacekeepers during heavy fighting in Congo.
U.N. spokesman Col. Samba Tall says some soldiers were slightly injured and both vehicles were damaged in the attack on Sunday.

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is the founder and former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council will likely authorize deployment of some special forces and new military hardware to help U.N. troops better protect civilians from increasing violence in Congo, diplomats said.
Earlier this month Alan Doss, head of the U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), asked the Security Council for more troops, including forces with special skills and training, as well as drones and other military hardware that can improve MONUC’s intelligence gathering capabilities.