Congo refugees leave everything for Uganda

NYAKABANDE, Uganda, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Four days ago, Louis Makasi was the proud owner of a drugstore -- modest, but still functioning amidst the chaos of eastern Congo's vicious war.

Now his sole possessions are a cracked jerry can, torn clothes and a cooking pot with nothing to cook in it.

"I tried to stay back but the fighting got too bad," he said, describing how men with guns had rampaged through his village last week, raping women and machine-gunning passers-by.

"I heard shots everywhere, I saw bullets flying around like locusts. The rebels blocked many of us as we tried to flee, saying we must stay and suffer."

Makasi is one of nearly 13,000 refugees who managed to escape the surging violence in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless east in the past week, crossing the border into Uganda.

"I brought my family here, but I have no food, nothing I can give them," the 26-year-old father of six said, as he sat next to a makeshift tent pitched from white plastic sheets.

Tens of thousands of Congolese have fled in the past few weeks from North Kivu province in the face of some of the worst fighting since the end of Congo's 1998-2003 war, which drew in six countries and killed nearly 4 million people.

Sporadic clashes in North Kivu have worsened since August, when renegade general Laurent Nkunda pulled out of a January ceasefire with the government.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila has threatened a military offensive to forcibly disarm Nkunda's rebel Tutsi soldiers if they do not give themselves up.

Nkunda offered on Wednesday to start demobilising 500 of his estimated 4,000 troops but diplomats doubt his sincerity.

DESPERATE TO RETURN

Refugees fleeing Congo's violence often take flight to western Uganda, then head back within days, but the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says the numbers flowing into the mountainous border province of Kisoro are steadily rising.

Flanked by towering black volcanos, Kisoro is home to forests housing Uganda's legendary mountain gorillas, the country's top earner of tourist dollars.

In a field ringed by green hills and volcanic peaks shrouded in wispy clouds, refugees dumped the few possessions they had salvaged -- mattresses, plastic wash basins, bags of clothes -- and sat waiting.

A lucky few with food stirred pots over smoking charcoal.

Jeune Rose Ayimikaye, 51, managed to escape Nkunda's rebels when they raided her village at night, but lost two of her eight sons in the process. Now she fears they have joined the ranks of his child soldiers.

"I saw rebels rape a 62-year-old woman. They were beating anyone still in their houses. They shot a child. I ran," she said. "I don't even know if my sons are alive or dead."

Women in kaleidoscopic dresses, some balancing more than one infant, queued to register at the UNHCR office, a white tent in a field strewn with other similar tents.

"We require more resources, food and non-food items," UNHCR representative for western Uganda Ilmi Diis Adan told Reuters.

"We need a minimum three weeks ... to see if the situation stabilises and give the refugees a choice to be relocated to a settlement or go back," he added.

Refugees said they were desperate to return home but few held out hope of doing so soon.

"There's nothing for us for here," said 37-year-old Jean Sobobera. "But we're going to die in Congo."