The rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) declared on Wednesday a unilateral cease-fire as they threatened to take over a strategic city in the country, reports from agencies said.
Reuters quoted Madnodje Mounoub, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, as saying that rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has declared a cease-fire.
The move came after days of heavy fighting between the rebels and government forces in North Kivu province.
The CNDP has threatened to take over the strategic town of Goma, the provincial capital of the country's eastern province of North Kivu, after overrunning the Rumangabo military base on Sunday.
Fighting in DR Congo is driving 30,000 people into refugee camps near Goma, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
In its statement, the UNHCR said that the refugees include 20, 000 displaced from a camp in Kibumba, which is about 20 km north of Goma. They are temporarily taking shelter at Kibati, 10 km north of the provincial capital.
The 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in the country, known as MONUC, used helicopter gunships to bomb the rebel forces north of Goma after being attacked by the rebel forces, the mission officials said.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned "the deliberate attacks" by the rebels on the UN peace mission, while appealing to the government and provincial authorities to "make every effort to restore calm."
The CNDP, led by renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda, has clashed with government forces since August 2007. He says his aim is to defend the Tutsi ethnic minority in DR Congo, which borders Rwanda.
The two sides signed a peace deal in Goma in January, agreeing to abide by a cease-fire, end hostility and restore peace.
Fighting resumed in August in North Kivu. The CNDP accuses the government of doing nothing to combat a Rwandese Hutu rebel group, the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), whose elements were blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The government denies the charges, saying it is determined to disarm and dislodge Rwandese Hutu rebels from the east of the country where they have been holed up since 1994.