TUTSIS SPREAD TERROR IN EASTERN ZAIRE CITY : EXODUS CONTINUES OF SOME 2,000 FROM KIBUMBA REFUGEE CAMP.

Byline: Chris Tomlinson Associated Press

Tutsi fighters advanced on the eastern Zairian city of Bukavu on Sunday, trading mortar and small-arms fire with Zairian defenders in the most serious fighting in months in the heart of Africa.

The governor of South Kivu province made a radio address urging residents to remain in their homes in Bukavu, the provincial capital at the south end of Lake Kivu.

But the fighting sent thousands of panicked residents fleeing west and north as Zairian troops clashed with Tutsi fighters, known as Banyamulenge, positioned only three miles to the south.

Rwandan soldiers near Cyangugu exchanged cross-border fire with Zairian troops until a thunderstorm struck.

Meanwhile, the exodus continued of some 200,000 people from the Kibumba refugee camp in Zaire's Goma region, about 125 miles north of Bukavu.

The flight began after a barrage of artillery and mortar fire hit the camp Friday and Saturday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said at least four people were killed and 100 wounded. Witness reports that many more had died could not be confirmed.

About 1,500 Rwandan refugees and 3,000 Zairians sought shelter Sunday by crossing into northern Rwanda. Nine Zairians were being treated for wounds at a hospital in Gisenyi, aid officials said.

The remaining Kibumba refugees were said to be arriving at Mugunga camp, west of Goma, at a rate of 5,000 an hour.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata called Sunday on combatants to stop attacking refugees and to open humanitarian corridors for those caught in fighting.

``What hurts me most are reports that women and children are again caught in this terrible tragedy,'' Ogata said in a statement. ``The first refugees to reach the hospital in Goma after the attacks this weekend were 36 women and children, all of them suffering from shrapnel wounds.

``There was one report of a woman giving birth along the road to Goma,'' she said.

In total, half a million refugees displaced by the fighting were roaming the mountainous corridor in eastern Zaire.

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Photo

PHOTO A Rwandan Hutu refugee collects grass in the Mugungarefugee camp, where refugees were arriving at a rate of 5,000 an hour.

Associated Press