It was the small hours of yesterday morning when they swept through Goma's neighbourhoods: Congolese government soldiers meant to protect the city's population, but who came instead as looters and killers.

Bright red lines of tracer fire criss-crossing the night sky brought the first signs of a bloody night. Then, from around some of the city's neighbourhoods, the flat pop-pop sound of Kalashnikov fire and occasional thud of heavier weapons quickly followed.

Across the city, Goma's nervous citizens hunkered down in their homes and improvised refugee camps, convinced that the final showdown between the government forces and rebel fighters loyal to the dissident General Laurent Nkunda had finally come.

After days of fighting on the outskirts of the city, most people here were expecting another upsurge in hostilities. But some of the worst violence late Wednesday into Thursday came not from clashes between the two foes but from rampaging Congolese soldiers.

Angry, drunk and in retreat, rogue gangs of soldiers who had given up the fight against the rebels stole what they could from homes and shops as panic gripped this tumbledown volcanic town on the banks of Lake Kivu.

In one incident a Goma restaurant owner was shot dead, his bullet-riddled body left lying on the city centre's dusty, lava-blackened streets. At least eight other civilians were killed.

Earlier on Wednesday evening, at the border crossing point with Rwanda, the road was clogged with vehicles and the immigration post swamped with many of Goma's civilians and foreign aid workers, desperate to leave as rumours again circulated that Nkunda's fighters were bearing down on the city. “I've been here for hours, trying to get our exit documents. Look at them, look in their eyes - people are gripped with fear,” said one Tutsi man fleeing with his family to the nearby Rwandan border town of Gisenyi, fearing that Hutus in Goma would carry out reprisals after the rebels' advance.

Hotels on the Rwandan side of the frontier were full. The vehicles of international NGOs packed with expatriate field staff leaving Goma could be seen on the road to the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Despite the announcement of a ceasefire by General Nkunda late on Wednesday, Goma's streets were tense. Congolese paramilitary police and army units in pick-up trucks toured roads and alleyways, trying to restore order and round up looters.Some civilians tentatively emerged from their homes in search of basic provisions.

Close to the base of the United Nations peacekeeping force a small funeral party carried the coffin of a victim of the recent fighting to a nearby cemetery.

Almost every public building in this city that lies in the shadow of the active Nyiragongo volcano is crammed to bursting point with tens of thousands of civilians who took to the road to flee to Goma.

At the normally bustling airport the terminal building was deserted. Around some of the hangar buildings Congolese soldiers loaded up vehicles with weapons and ammunition before heading to the front lines, while others, back from the fighting dirty and exhausted, sprawled on the ground next to battered trucks.

Many of the soldiers were drawn and reticent, while some appeared traumatised by their experiences on the front lines after battling a well-armed, motivated and disciplined rebel force.

Watched by Congolese Army commanders, UN helicopters clattered back and forth on resupply missions for their own beleaguered soldiers, who are supporting the national army.

Among them stood General Mayala Kiama, commander of the 8th region in North Kivu, who is responsible for defending Goma.

Asked about the unilateral ceasefire called by his rebel rival General Nkunda, General Kiama said his forces would observe the truce for now. As for the Government's capacity to defend the city, he was in no doubt.

“Why not?” he insisted. “We have all the military hardware, men and material here, so why not?

As General Kiama spoke, a few soldiers kitted out in a motley assortment of uniforms and armed with ageing assault rifles stood near by.

“Nkunda is Congolese like me and he has his opinions and has chosen to do this,” said General Kiama “But I am a soldier and my head of command has made clear that ... my orders are to stop him.”

Patrick Barth is a reporter with Frontier Africa TV

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