Carrying belongings on their heads and babies on their backs, tens of thousands of people fled through bush country toward the world's largest refugee camp Thursday as battles between Zairian troops and Tutsi rebels drew closer to the Zairian town of Goma.
Goma, on Zaire's eastern border with Rwanda, is the main food supply center for U.N. refugee camps housing 700,000 desperate people.Thurday's exodus began after reports of a two-pronged Tutsi rebel attack on the Kahindo region, 35 miles north of Goma, said Brenda Barton, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program in Nairobi, Kenya.
Heavy fighting was also reported around Goma's airport, the lifeline for food aid to the entire region, and it was not known which side had the upper hand there.
More than 110,000 Rwandan Hutus from the Kahindo refugee camp and 20,000 Zairians were fleeing along bush paths, said Paul Stromberg, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The refugees were avoiding the main roads for fear of being caught up in the fighting, he said. Reed mats, sacks of food and bundles of clothing could be seen balancing on the refugees' heads as they trudged past.
Ruth Marshall, UNHCR spokeswoman in Geneva, said the refugees were heading for the Mugunga camp on the outskirts of Goma, which - with about 400,000 inhabitants - is already the biggest refugee camp in the world.
"This concentration is a recipe for rapid deterioration," said Marshall. "It could within days become catastrophic in that camp."
The fighting in eastern Zaire has raised the specter of another humanitarian catastrophe like the 1994 exodus of 1.1 million Rwandan Hutus following the genocide of 500,000 Tutsis and opposition figures in Rwanda.
In the current battles, Zairian troops are fighting Tutsi rebels who have defied the government's order to leave the country that their ancestors have lived in for at least 200 years.
The Tutsis have made striking advances in recent days. Trained and aided by Rwanda's Tutsi-led army, the rebels routed the Zairians from the provincial capital of Bukavu on Wednesday.
The retreating Zairians took up defensive positions in hills outside Bukavu, 60 miles south of Goma, but Tutsi artillery continued to pound them.
Stromberg had no details Friday on the fighting near Kahindo, but said heavy gunfire was reported around Goma's airport Friday morning and he did not know if Zairian troops or Tutsi rebels were in control there.