World Nov. 03, 2008 - 06:00AM JST ( 8 )

KIBUMBA, Congo —

European officials warned Sunday that 1.6 million displaced people are at risk in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as a U.N. official said help will go into rebel-held zones on Monday.

Gloria Fernandez, head of mission for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said access to rebel-held Rutshuru, in the north of Nord-Kivu province, has been organized following negotiations.

“We have organized a convoy that is going tomorrow (Monday) with the participation of international NGOs and U.N. agencies,” Fernandez told reporters.

It is estimated that 250,000 civilians have been directly affected by the most recent conflict, particularly in Rutshuru.

“Many humanitarian organizations were forced to leave their places of work and suspend their operations temporarily,” she said.

As rebels sought to reassure residents in newly-captured territories that they would be safe, Western diplomats pleaded for cooperation to address humanitarian concerns.

“More than 1.6 million internally displaced are trapped in the crisis” and cannot be easily accessed, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Sunday in the Tanzanian city of Dar Es Salaam.

“They are without food, water and other necessities.”

Miliband spoke after he and French counterpart Bernard Kouchner met Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, current chairman of the African Union, following their meetings with Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame.

Kinshasa has accused Rwanda’s Tutsi-dominated regime of supporting the rebels of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), led by former general Laurent Nkunda, who says he is protecting local Tutsis.

Kigali denies the charge, but analysts say there is little doubt that Rwanda—frustrated by Kinshasa’s failure to disarm a Rwandan Hutu rebel group harbouring key perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis—is helping Nkunda.

Uruguayan military commander Jorge Rosales, who is overseeing the peacekeeping troops in Congo, said Friday the rebel forces were being backed by tanks and artillery from Rwanda.

A unilateral truce declared by Nkunda appeared to be holding Sunday.

Kikwete on Sunday said he was involved in diplomatic efforts ahead of a summit on the situation in Nairobi next week, where the leaders of Rwanda and Congo have agreed to discuss the crisis.

The U.S. State Department’s assistant secretary for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer, has also held talks with Kabila and Kagame.

In the east of Congo, a flood of residents—many of whom fled just seven days ago—trudged along a road on foot, carrying bundles of personal belongings.

From 6 a.m., thousands of displaced people began moving down the main road linking the provincial capital Goma and Rutshuru, 75 kilometers further north, in the opposite direction from which they had come.

With bags on their heads and goats at their sides, they were making their way home, rather than to a camp at Kibumba, 25 kilometers north of Goma, where most of them had been living only a few days ago.

“We received no food, so we are returning,” said Paul Bashoboye Bareke, 51, surrounded by his wife and their eight children.

Nkunda’s rebels closed the camp on Sunday, posting their men around the camp and telling people they had to go to their own homes because security could now be assured.

The displaced had fled the camps at the beginning of last week when fierce fighting between government troops and the rebels erupted, taking refuge on the outskirts of Goma.

Fernandez could not confirm reports that the rebels had forced civilians out of the camps at Rutshuru.

But she said: “Most of these people fled the camps in fear and in panic as they heard that (rebel) troops were advancing on the area ... There was considerable panic in the area.”

Nkunda’s forces on Saturday held a parade in Rutshuru , which they seized earlier this week, and promised civilians they would improve their living conditions.

But the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate reports of abuses on the civilians by both rebels and government forces.

About 10 Congolese soldiers have been arrested for looting in eastern Congo and will be judged later in the week by a military tribunal, government spokesman Mende said on Sunday.

Wire reports