Congo cholera outbreak spreads amid tense standoff

A cholera outbreak in a sprawling refugee camp has spread to eastern Congo's provincial capital, increasing fears of an epidemic amid a tense standoff between troops and rebels.

Two infected residents were admitted to Goma Hospital on Sunday, along with two refugees who were taking shelter in the city, Doctors Without Borders' Dr. Rafaela Gentilini said.

Relief officials say they have recorded more than 50 cases of cholera since Friday.

There were clashes over the weekend between rebels and soldiers, igniting concern that patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.

But it appears unlikely that a European Union force will come to help stem the fighting. France failed to secure support Monday from other European Union nations for sending a 1,500-strong EU battle group to eastern Congo to bolster UN peacekeepers.

The fighting in eastern Congo is fuelled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of at least 500,000 Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda.

Laurent Nkunda, whose rebels launched an offensive Aug. 28, has said he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu militants who participated in the genocide before fleeing to Congo.

A summit of southern African leaders said Sunday that members could, if necessary, send peacekeepers to bolster the UN force. A rebel spokesman said Monday that insurgents will fight any soldiers that fight alongside Congo's army.

"I don't know if they will come and engage us," Nkunda's spokesman Babu Amani said Monday. "We won't keep silent while they kill us. We will defend ourselves."

Amani said rebel forces will not fight the UN peacekeeping force.

Nkunda declared a ceasefire on Oct. 29 as his forces reached the edge of Goma, but there have been sporadic clashes since then.

Some 50,000 refugees have crowded around Kibati, some taken into log cabins by villagers, others living in tents or hastily built beehive-shaped huts. Thousands are sleeping out in the open, and they huddled under plastic sheeting Sunday as heavy rain pounded down.

Dozens of people have died of cholera in recent weeks elsewhere in eastern Congo. Doctors also fear an epidemic north of Goma behind rebel lines, where access has been limited by fighting and rebels have driven tens of thousands of people from camps where outbreaks had been contained.

At a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers Monday, Germany and Britain opposed sending EU troops to Congo, despite France's urging that a battle group be sent.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the EU's role should be to encourage the African Union to do more militarily while promoting a political solution.

He welcomed a declaration made at a summit of southern African leaders on Sunday that said African countries could send peacekeepers if needed to help the UN force.

"It will be for every country of the world really to consider its own position," Miliband said. "What's significant about the talks on the weekend is the clear determination from African leaders to make sure their countries are in the lead politically and militarily."

The international Red Cross said separately Monday that it had handed out over 200 tonnes of food to some 17,000 people displaced by the violence in eastern Congo.