Miliband on his way to Congo
Foreign secretary David Miliband is flying out to the Congo this afternoon to help tackle the violence engulfing the region.
Mr Miliband said the eastern Congo risks turning into a humanitarian catastrophe unless a political solution is found.
“I have also discussed with the French, German and Belgian foreign ministers and Javier Solana, European support for the political process and the UN’s peacekeeping force,” he said.
Warning of a “dire humanitarian situation”, Mr Miliband condemned the fighting in the region, in a message echoed by UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon.
Relief corridors are being set up around the city of Goma as aid agencies warn of a severe crisis in the region.
Although gunfire was heard overnight and this morning in Goma, the ceasefire between rebels and government troops was holding on Friday.
Despite the truce, tens of thousands of people have fled the gateway city, which lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda and his National Congress for the Defence of the People rebels, reportedly backed by Rwanda’s Tutsi government, are 15km outside Goma.
He told al-Jazeera he wanted a permanent peace accord and wanted to hold discussions with the Kinshasa government.
“If the government can accept the call, we are ready to talk. We support the position of the international community [to stop fighting]. That’s why we are in a ceasefire,” he said.
“This was a way to show that we are not for fighting, but for peace.”
Oxfam is among the leading aid agencies to have suspended operations in Goma, while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said the humanitarian situation was becoming “catastrophic”.
DRC government troops fled Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier this week, leaving just 850 United Nations peacekeeping troops in the city.
The UN is in the process of redeploying its 17,000 other peacekeepers – the world’s largest peacekeeping force – from around Congo to Goma.
