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At least 45,000 people have fled a refugee camp in Goma, a provincial capital in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN refugee agency has said.
This is said to have been prompted by reports of gunfire being heard in Goma on Wednesday, as forces loyal to Laurent Nkunda advance on the city.
According to a statement from the rebels, Nkunda's group declared a unilateral ceasefire "to avoid panicking the population of Goma".
Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that "the whole camp was packing up and leaving," after refugees saw Congolese government troops themselves passing the Kibati camp in large numbers as they moved south.
The camp in Kibati, about 10km north of Goma, had seen an influx of about 30,000 people in recent days in addition to the 15,000 already there as the conflict in the North Kivu region between government forces and Tutsi fighters intensified.
Redmond said that UNHCR staff had been in the camp delivering food and other emergency supplies to the "exhausted and traumatised" refugees when government forces were seen moving south "fairly fast, and in fairly large numbers".
The city's governor told the AFP news agency that government forces were fleeing the advance of fighters from the National Congress for the Defense of the People (NCDP(.
Julien Paluku said: "People are stampeding and the city is panicking."
Redmond told Al Jazeera that the prospect of violence akin to the Rwandan genocide is unlikely.
"I don't think we are approaching anything on that scale, but we are increasingly concerned about this situation," he said.
"Unfortunately it is the poorest of the poor who are the real victims in this conflict. If we are not able to help them, no one will, and that is what is so heartbreaking about this situation."
'Humanitarian catastrophe'
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said that the escalating violence in the DRC is creating a "humanitarian catastrophe".
"The intensification and expansion of the conflict is creating a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions and threatens dire consequences on a regional scale," he said in a statement.
Ban also urged "all parties to immediately cease hostilities and to respect international humanitarian law".
United Nations peacekeepers said they have used attack helicopters for a second day to try to halt the advance from Nkunda's fighters.
Monuc, the UN's largest peacekeeping mission, increased its intervention in the conflict amid the growing number of internally displaced people flocking to refugee camps and government soldiers abandoned their positions.
The fighting had started on Sunday when Nkunda's NCDP launched a major offensive in eastern North Kivu province.
Late on Tuesday, Nkunda's men claimed to have taken a town near Goma.
Heavy fighting was reported on Wednesday as government forces traded heavy weapons fire with the renegade militia as they geared up for an assault on Goma.
Clashes were reported in Kibumba, about 30km north of Goma, where the UN aircraft fired on NCDP positions, temporarily stalling their advance and forcing them to retreat to higher ground.
A senior aide to Nkunda, a Tutsi who says he is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsis, told AFP that the CNDP would take Goma.
After three days of fighting, the city's population has swelled with panicked villagers fleeing rural areas to escape the fighting.
Government forces are blocking roads into Goma from the north, but had pulled out in disarray from a second position further north.
The Kinshasa government accuses neighboring Rwanda of supporting Nkunda, a charge Kigali has denied.
Nkunda's troops were "backed by Rwandan tanks which are pounding our positions from border hill positions," a government official said.
Rwanda's Tutsi-led government has repeatedly denied DR Congo's accusations that it has sent troops across the border.
Additional forces
The United Nations Security Council failed to reach a decision on an urgent request to reinforce UN peacekeeping troops in eastern Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) early on Wednesday.
Alain Le Roy, the head of UN peacekeeping, briefed the council on the deteriorating situation and said that his request for additional forces had "been heard clearly by all member states".
He said that Joseph Kabila, the president of DR Congo, also made a request for a "multinational force" to support Monuc.
But the 15-member council issued only a non-binding statement in which members expressed "great concern at the resurgence of violence in eastern DRC and strongly condemned the offensive operations".
Le Roy stressed that Monuc urgently needed a special forces unit as well as air support.
"We have seen statements by the CNDP that they want to take Goma," he said.
"This is very worrying and would be very dangerous for the stability of the region."
PHOTO CAPTION
Congolese soldiers and thousands of displaced people stream into Goma in eastern Congo, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008.
Al Jazeera and agencies
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