Congo rebels not honoring cease-fire, official says

(CNN) -- Rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are not honoring a cease-fire and have been killing dozens of soldiers and even civilians, a government official said Sunday.

"It is clear that the cease-fire has been broken," Minister of Communication Lambert Mende Omalanga told CNN. "They are killing people and looting the Congo."

Omalanga said he has seen reports of as many as 200 people being killing in the Congo in the past week. CNN could not independently verify the figure.

A United Nations spokesman said Saturday that fighting had continued in the Congo, and that a U.N. team confirmed reports of 26 bodies in the village of Kiwanja, where a human rights group had said rebels battled government-backed militias last week.

The group, Human Rights Watch, reported Thursday that rebels and the opposing militias deliberately killed civilians in Kiwanja. The U.N. spokesman said some of the slain were non-combatants. Watch civilians flee fighting in the Congo »

Fighting broke out at the end of August between the Congolese army and rebel forces led by Gen. Laurent Nkunda, who declared a unilateral cease-fire on Oct. 29.

The fighting has aggravated an already serious humanitarian crisis, the U.N. and aid groups say. Thousands have fled to refugee camps because of the fighting.

On Friday, African leaders at a regional summit called for an immediate cease-fire. Nkunda was not at the summit. Congolese President Joseph Kabila and the presidents of Congo's neighboring countries were among the leaders there.

More must be done, Omalanga said.

"The international community has to do something to stop this," said Omalanga. "We have one side that believes in peace and the other side who is just signing a paper."

Also Sunday, aid agency Doctors Without Borders said it is worried about a recent rise in cholera cases in a camp hosting tens of thousands of people who fled the fighting.

Doctors Without Borders has seen 45 cases of cholera in the last three days in a refugee camp near the eastern provincial capital of Goma, said Megan Hunter, nurse and project coordinator with the organization.

Medics usually see five to 10 cases of the illness a week in Goma, Hunter said.

"This is not out of control yet, but we are started to get worried," she said.

Cholera, a waterborne disease, can be fatal if not treated. Many people with cholera suffer acute, watery diarrhea, which leads to severe dehydration.

About 40,000 to 60,000 people are at the Kibati camp just north of Goma, Hunter said.

The conflict in eastern Congo between the Tutsi-led rebels and the government is fueled by festering ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda, and Congo's civil wars from 1996-2002, which drew neighboring countries in a rush to plunder Congo's mineral wealth.

Nkunda, who defected from Congo's army in 2004, claims the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after the Tutsi slaughter in Rwanda. Critics say Nkunda has exaggerated the threat against Tutsis and is a puppet of neighboring Rwanda.

All About Democratic Republic of the Congo • United Nations • Laurent Nkunda