Aid workers in eastern Congo began feeding tens of thousands of hungry refugees in rebel-held areas, as a UN-appointed envoy started urgent talks aimed at averting a wider war.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, named by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his special envoy for eastern Congo, met Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda and then flew on to the Congolese capital Kinshasa.
Obasanjo, tasked with seeking a lasting solution to the conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, was to hold talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila.
Obasanjo said he wanted to meet rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
"Yesterday, by telephone, I spoke to my brother Nkunda ... everything will be done to meet with him face to face," he told Reuters at Luanda airport before leaving for Kinshasa. He said details were still being worked out.
Fighting between Nkunda's Tutsi rebels and the Congolese army has forced some 250,000 people from their homes in North Kivu since late August, resulting in what the UN has called a humanitarian catastrophe and fears of a broader war.
For the first time after weeks of fighting, UN aid workers handed out rations of maize and lentils to the first of at least 50,000 hungry civilians in Rutshuru territory, the scene of weeks of battles between rebel and government forces.
Under a hot sun, men, women and children lined up quietly in a church compound and a football stadium after the UN World Food Programme (WFP) convoy crossed the front lines.
Obasanjo said he was hopeful his mission could achieve peace. "I'm confident, but it will not be easy," he said.
There are fears the fighting could escalate into a repeat of a 1998-2003 war that sucked in six African states.
Kabila accuses neighbouring Rwanda of supporting Nkunda, while southern African states led by Angola have said they are considering sending troops to back the Congolese army, or to bolster a stretched 17,000-strong UN force in Congo.
But Obasanjo said he had received assurances from Angola that no Angolan troops were fighting with Congolese government forces, contrary to repeated rumours.
"I want to end the speculation that Angolan troops are fighting side by side with Congolese troops ... that is not the case," the former Nigerian president said.
Children chase maize grains
In October, Nkunda's rebels seized swathes of Rutshuru territory and marched to the gates of provincial capital Goma before declaring a ceasefire. Sporadic clashes have continued.
"I can't remember how many days my family hasn't eaten. I think about four or five days. These are very small quantities. How can families survive?" teacher Djuma Kabere said as young men pushed bicycles loaded with sacks of white maize meal.
"It's more important to bring peace instead of food," he added. As the food was distributed, children ducked under ropes to scoop up handfuls of maize that fell on the ground.
Protected by UN peacekeepers, the convoy of 12 trucks carrying 100 tonnes of maize, lentils, oil and salt wound its way north, crossing the combat lines in the shadow of the Nyiragongo volcano, before arriving in Rutshuru and Kiwanja, towns 70 km north of Goma.
"This is the first time we have been able to move food trucks across the frontline into the rebel-held areas," said WFP spokesman Marcus Prior. The UN says malnutrition in Rutshuru, usually a breadbasket, is almost twice emergency levels.
Rights groups say the rebels and a rival pro-government militia killed dozens of civilians in Kiwanja last week.
Nkunda wants talks with President Kabila and has threatened to march on the capital Kinshasa if he does not agree.
About a million civilians in North Kivu have fled their homes to escape violence since UN-backed elections were held across the vast former Belgian colony in 2006.
The polls were meant to usher in a new era of peace after the 1998-2003 war and its aftermath which has killed some five million Congolese through violence, hunger and disease.
The North Kivu conflict traces its origins back to Rwanda's 1994 genocide of Hutus by Tutsis, which helped trigger the 1998-2003 Congo war. Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing Nkunda, who says he is defending Congolese Tutsis from attacks by FDLR Rwandan Hutu rebels he says fight with the Congolese army.
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