The brutal war in the Democratic Republic of Congo which left between three to four million dead is supposed to be over, but you would not know it

Mike Thomson:

Thousands of people have been pouring into this camp for displaced people north of the regional capital, Goma, in recent weeks and the stories they bring with them are horrific.

A woman who lost her father and brother in an attack on her village by rebel militia told me she saw 100 people killed.

"And that is not even counting the dead bodies they made us throw down the wells."

Another man tells me about similar carnage that happened not far away. This time the attackers were members of the Congolese army itself.

"Rebels ambushed a colonel of the army and after this they said they would attack all the population because they said we were directly helping the rebels against them.

"So, the army began to kill people inside my village, going from street to street to kill people without taking care whether they were rebels or not."

The United Nations' World Food Programme says that more than 50,000 people from three villages have been forced to flee their homes over the past month alone.

A spokesman told me that in the past such people would return soon after but not anymore.

Camps like the one I am in, about 30 kilometres from the Ugandan border, are becoming permanent for the first time.

In all, 200,000 people here now need food aid and 1,000 across the east are estimated to be dying of conflict related diseases every single day.

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