The UN said it is bracing for an estimated 30,000 people leaving the city of Goma [AFP]

Early on Tuesday, fighters from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) drew to within 10km of the town of Rutshuru in North Kivu, which lies around 100km north of the provincial capital Goma, officials said.

"The convoy is being prepared now, but hasn't left yet," a spokesman for OCHA, the UN humanitarian co-ordination agency, said of the evacuation plan.

"It will leave today," he said. "Normally there are around 50 staff in Rutshuru and surrounding areas."

Joe Bavier, a freelance journalist working in North Kivu, told Al Jazeera that the anti-government offensive was taking control of territory at a fast pace.

"For the last few days we have had fighting just north of the provincial capital, Goma. That calmed a bit, but now there has been a fresh offensive by the rebels, pushing north along the main road out of Goma towards Rutshuru," he said.

"Rutshuru is one of four urban areas that Monuc has vowed to defend at all costs, by today UN humanitarian workers are preparing to evacuate the town.

"We are still trying to verify whether the town has fallen into the hands of the rebels today."

'Heavy fighting'

The UN-backed Radio Okapi also reported clashes around Kibumba, 20km north of Goma.

The area saw heavy exchanges of fire on Monday, with Tutsi fighters saying that they had forced the Congolese army from their positions there.

Both Rutshuru and Kibumba shelter tens of thousands of refugees displaced by years of fighting in eastern Congo.

The CNDP fighters, which are led by General Laurent Nkunda, launched a major offensive on Sunday, advancing to within 20km of Goma.

They destroyed two UN armoured vehicles and forced thousands of civilians to flee south towards Goma.

"There has been very little information coming from the government or military sources in North Kivu," Bavier said.

"Witnesses have seen [army soldiers] fleeing today from a town just north of Goma into the city itself, in a column of military vehicles. The government forces are relying on a UN peacekeeping forces that is really in disarray at this point."

Local people, angered by the fighting and the failure of UN peacekeepers to prevent Nkunda's advance, rioted at the UN base in Goma on Monday and one person was killed, a UN spokesman said.

Thousands displaced

Ron Redmond, spokesman for UNHCR, the UN relief agency, said on Tuesday that it was bracing itself for an estimated 30,000 displaced people fleeing to camps near Goma amid the fighting.

Staff are "struggling to prepare for the arrival of an estimated 30,000 displaced people forced to flee camps and villages to the north of the city amid fighting between rebel and government forces.

"Many more could be on the way from areas further north that have been affected by the fighting in recent days," he said.

Reports suggested that Tutsi fighters were within 10km of Rutshuru [AFP]

The World Food Programme, the UN food agency, last week estimated that 200,000 people have been displaced in Nord-Kivu by violence which began at the end of August.

Earlier this month, Ban Ki-moon, the UN  secretary-general, urged the DRC government and Nkunda's government  to observe an "effective" ceasefire and to co-operate for a separation of their forces.

Lieutenant-General Vicente Diaz de Villegas "has indicated that for personal reasons he will not be able to continue with his assignment as planned", the UN told a regular news briefing.
  
The appointment of Diaz as the commander of Munoc, the French acronym for the force, was announced on September 9.
 
The UN said Diaz, a Spanish national, would be replaced as soon as possible and that Brigadier-General Ishmeel Ben Quartey, a Ghanaian, would serve as acting commander.

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