FROM the shore the islands are small green spots on the horizon. Behind them mist-covered hills rise from a huge expanse of water, stretching far into the distance of the world’s second largest rainforest.

As the boat approaches, thick papyrus reeds part to reveal dozens of flimsy huts. The inhabitants rush towards us. Many sink waist deep into the putrid, muddy waters. Others walk gingerly on the surface — a floating, rotting mattress of matted reeds and mangroves. The dozen or more islands, some the size of football pitches, now provide sanctuary for thousands of victims of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s latest fighting.

They have taken refuge in this remote, mosquito-infested area of shallow lakes and marshes — the source of the great Congo river which snakes across the heart of Africa — to escape clashes between roaming militias, known as Mai-Mai, and the Congolese Army.

“The Mai-Mai came at night. They killed people. We fled in our canoes and came here, but we have lost everything,” said Kalenga wa Kalenga, 32, as she waded knee-deep to get an emergency package from Médecins sans Frontières, one of the few charities in the area.

“These people are living in pitiful conditions. It is especially bad when it rains. Their homes are flooded and there is all manner of diseases,” said Patrick Hache, an MSF volunteer delivering plastic sheeting and other basic essentials to several hundred refugees crammed on the island of Tubelo Bazungo.

The Government, which is trying to re-establish control over this deceptively beautiful part of Central Africa before elections scheduled for late June, dispatched 4,000 illdisciplined, poorly equipped troops to the area in January.

They have since roamed over vast areas of the mineral-rich Katanga province in a largely futile attempt to rein in the militia groups. The Government originally armed the Mai-Mai to fight as civil defence groups against Rwandan and Ugandan invaders in Congo’s war but they soon turned to banditry.

As ever in Congo, where Oxfam says 1,000 people are killed every day, the innocent are paying the price. The army attacks the local population as it passes through, often raping and pillaging like the militias. Those who resist are branded Mai-Mai supporters and face detention, even death. The Mai-Mai, who wear masks and sport ju-ju talismans with allegedly magical powers, accuse the villagers of collaborating with the army. They return to the villages at night and exact revenge. Sometimes they march the villagers into the bush to work as human mules.

More than 100,000 terrified people have fled their homes on the eastern shore of Lake Upemba. Thousands more have fled in canoes to swamps on the far side of the lake.

“I feel safer on the island. The Mai-Mai attacked our village two months ago. They wanted to march everyone off in to the bush, but we managed to run away,” said Fena, who escaped with her three children.But her husband failed to survive the journey. “He was sick and died. There are no medicines here,” she said.

At its height Congo’s war, which officially ended in 2002, drew in neighbouring countries. Attracted by Congo’s vast copper, cobalt, tin, gold and diamond resources, proxy armies and militias killed four million people, making it the bloodiest conflict since the end of the Second World War.

Under the terms of an internationally brokered peace agreement, the transitional multiparty Government has to hold national elections by the end of June.

Originally, the polls were slated for March, then postponed to June 18. Last week the date was put back again.

The organisers face huge logistical problems in a country the size of Western Europe and one which has not had an election since winning independence from Belgium in 1960. The timetable for registration is hopelessly behind schedule.

Congo’s dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997 by the father of the President, Joseph Kabila, was so frightened of coups that he built no roads.

The Government has little control over great swaths of the country, much of it dense rainforest.

The UN has sent 17,000 peacekeepers to police the process, making it by far its largest and most costly peace mission.Several have been killed. Too are often they are in the wrong place, and there are no UN troops at all in Katanga.

DEADLY CONFLICT

• Civil war officially ended in 2002 after four years. More than 4 million died
• Fighting sucked in Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia
• Peacekeeping has involved 17,000 UN troops
• First free elections for 45 years in 2005

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