Thousands of civilians fled fresh fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as Tutsi rebels advanced towards the regional capital Goma.

The United Nations refugee agency said around 30 000 displaced people had started to arrive at Kibati, a camp 10 kilometres north of Goma.

The EU Commission described as a "catastrophe" reports that the UN was preparing to evacuate aid workers from the conflict zone and said Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel will make an emergency visit to the country on Wednesday to ascertain needs on the ground.

The North Kivu region in the eastern DRC has been the site of fighting between government and rebel forces since late August, after the failure of a ceasefire signed in January.

Rebels launch offensive

But rebels loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda launched an offensive that put government forces on the run in the last few days and brought them to Kibumba, some 30 kilometres north of Goma.

"I got out of Kibumba because there was fighting between the FARDC (Congolese army) and the rebels," said Josephine Kabedi, a child strapped to her back and another in her arms, as she reached the Kibati camp.

"I've walked the whole day without eating," she said, adding that the rebels had attacked Kibumba from a hill on the Rwandan border.

The government in Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of actively supporting Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which Kigali has denied.

An exhausted-looking Jean Nkuruziza (33) carried a blow-up mattress along the road and said Rwandan soldiers had taken part in the attack.

"I left Kibumba this morning because last night I couldn't find a way out. They're still fighting in our village. Rwandan military came in via Kasizi, on the border, to attack Kibumba."

"I don't know where I will go," he said.

Along the main road around 10 kilometres south of Kibumba, dozens of government soldiers were scrambling towards Goma, overtaken by the armoured vehicles of the Monuc peacekeeping forces.

UN uses helicopter gunships

The UN force said it used helicopter gunships on Tuesday to halt a rebel offensive.

"The use of our combat helicopters against the National Congress for the Defence of the People (NCDP) in the Kibumba area allowed us to disperse the rebels and block their progress," Monuc spokesperson Sylvie Van der Wildenberg said, without indicating whether the helicopters fired directly on the rebels.

"We are trying hard to secure the urban centres," she said, adding that the rebels' "policy of pushing displaced people towards the towns is unacceptable."

A UN peacekeeper was wounded on Monday when rebels fired on a Monuc base in Kibumba, a military source told AFP.

Fighting was also reported in the strategic town of Rutshuru, around 100 kilometres north of Goma.

"We are four kilometres from the centre of Rutshuru," rebel spokesperson Bertrand Bisimwa told AFP by telephone, adding that their positions had come under pressure from government forces on Tuesday.

"We are also within 16 kilometres of Goma," he added.

Aid workers to be evacuated

The Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said an attempt to evacuate staff from Rutshuru had to be "put on hold temporarily due to insecurity in the town".

"All aid workers are safe and the UN is closely monitoring the situation," it said.

Goma itself was reported quiet on Tuesday, with schools and most shops remaining shut. The main market was closed and there was little traffic on the normally busy streets.

EU Commission spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj said Michel's hastily arranged two-day visit "will be focussed on the situation in North Kivu from a humanitarian point of view," as well as looking at security and development, he added.

"There is an unprecedented number of people fleeing the conflict zone so there are urgent humanitarian needs to be addressed," Altafaj told AFP.

Altafaj voiced concern at reports coming out of DR Congo that UN peacekeepers were set to evacuate some foreign aid workers from the area.

"Now the pressure on the international humanitarian system is increasing," he said.

"This is a catastrophe because every humanitarian worker that is removed from the area means that a number of people will not receive proper assistance."

"The government is not in a position to provide the basic services they should to the populations in those areas," he added.

"If a three-year-old child has diarrhoea he will die in a matter of a week to put it very bluntly."

While in the capital Kinshasa, Michel will meet with DRC President Joseph Kabila, who named a new government of "combat and reconstruction" on Monday in a bid to pacify the giant central African country.

The EU commissioner will also meet other Congolese leaders and representatives of the UN and other international partners.

AFP