One million people have fled the fighting in eastern DR Congo in the last two years [AFP]

The foreign ministers of Britain and France flew into DR Congo on Saturday for talks with Joseph Kabila, the president, after tens of thousands of people were displaced by fighting between government forces and rebel fighters.

David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner were expected to meet Kabila in the capital Kinshasa before travelling to the eastern city of Goma.

The provincial capital of Nord-Kivu province has been threatened by an offensive by the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) Laurent Nkunda, a renegade general who says he is fighting to protect the region's ethnic Tutsis.

"This is a massacre such as Africa has probably never seen, which is taking place virtually before our eyes," Kouchner told French Europe 1 radio before he left for DR Congo.

Government forces abandoned Goma on Wednesday as the rebels advanced, leaving about 850 UN peacekeepers between Nkunda's forces and the city.

Rwanda accusations

Miliband and Kouchner, along with Jendayi Frazer, Washington's senior diplomat for Africa, were later due to travel to Rwanda, which the government in Kinshasa has accused of backing Nkunda's fighters.

On Friday, Kabila and Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president, agreed to attend an emergency summit on the crisis to discuss the crisis, Louis Michel, the the EU development commissioner, said.

He said both leaders were clearly sincere about "opting for dialogue and putting an end to the reasons that are undermining the east".

Kigali has repeatedly denied any involvement in the fighting.

"The government of Rwanda is not in this conflict," Louise Muchikiwabo, Rwanda's minister of information, said.

However, the head of Uruguay's military, which provides 1,300 of the UN peacekeepers operating in DR Congo, said that the CNDP was "backed by tanks, something that general Nkunda had not had until now".

General Jorge Rosales said it was "not easy to identify rebel forces," but suggested that there is a "high probability that troops from Rwanda are operating in the area".

Meanwhile, Mark Malloch-Brown, a British foreign office minister, said that the European Union would bolster the peacekeeping force if necessary.

"We have certainly got to have it as an option which is developed and on the table if we need it," he told BBC radio.

"But frankly, the first line of call on this should be redeployment of the UN's own troops from elsewhere in the country."

Ceasefire declaration

Nkunda has declared a unilateral ceasefire and called direct talks with the government, a demand that Kinshasa has so far ignored.

Nukunda declared a ceasefire as his forces reached the edge of Goma [AFP]

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, on Friday urged the leaders in the region to take necessary measures to ensure fighting does not resume.

"I urge General Nkunda of the CNDP to disengage and keep this ceasefire declaration he has made and engage in dialogue," said Ban.

Marie-Roger Biloa, editor of Africa International, a monthly news magazine, said that the central government in the DRC is very weak.

"Despite the international community expressing its support, the rebels clearly have the upper hand here, and it is ultimately dialogue that is needed, not further violence."

Looting and killing

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the humanitarian situation in Goma is "catastrophic," with two hospitals having been ransacked by looters on Thursday.

Nkunda's forces have been accused of looting and burning refugee camps in the region, while the UN human rights commissioner said government troops has carried out rapes, killings and lootings around Goma.

Navi Pillay, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, urged the government to take "swift and significant action" to control their troops and protect civilians.

"What happened in Goma should not have happened, as most violations were committed by looting soldiers belonging to the  government forces," she said.

About 220,000 people have now been displaced since fighting broke out in August, bringing to more than one million the number forced from their homes in Nord-Kivu in the last two years.

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