Renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced thousands of traumatised civilians from their homes, a relief agency said, as peace talks between warring factions dragged on.
Efforts to end Africa's biggest war have caused thousands of foreign troops to leave the lawless jungles of eastern Congo, but aid workers say the resulting power vacuum has triggered a new wave of bloodshed as rival militias vie for control.
Discussions between the government and the two main rebel groups were due to resume later today in South Africa's capital Pretoria, with United Nations and South African mediators presenting delegates with a summary of proposals for a post-war administration.
The war has cost about two million lives since 1998, mainly through hunger and disease.
The British relief agency Tearfund said that 10,000 people newly displaced by fighting had arrived in the Eringeti area of North Kivu province in eastern Congo, with 1,000 turning up at just one centre in the past week.
"They were raping many women, including young girls, and beheading people as they looted their homes," it quoted 32-year-old Mr Rodrique Mbuso saying.
Thousands of Rwandan and Ugandan troops who were backing rival rebel groups have left Congo in recent months, as have many Angolan and Zimbabwean troops sent to help the government.
Key differences remained over how far to take power sharing in the administration of Africa's third-biggest country and how to guarantee security for all factions in the capital Kinshasa, rebel officials said.
"The government wants to have a monopoly on security in Kinshasa," Colonel Thomas Luhaka, deputy head of military operations for the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) told Reuters. Government negotiators could not be reached for comment.
Despite setbacks and delays at the Pretoria talks, negotiators put on a brave face. "The signals we are getting from the main players are not negative," an aide to UN mediator Mr Moustapha Niasse said.