Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and the United Nations called for a cease-fire in eastern Congo as clashes erupted outside the North Kivu capital of Goma.

The meeting, attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, issued a communiqué calling for an ``immediate cease-fire'' and the establishment of a `humanitarian corridor'' so aid can reach 250,000 people displaced by recent fighting.

Battles between the Congolese army and Laurent Nkunda's rebel National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, broke out in Kibati, 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Goma, Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission Congo, or Monuc, said by phone. She didn't provide additional details.

``The fighting is really close, a young boy has been hit in the leg by a bullet,'' said Gilbert Ndimurwango, the head of a group of displaced civilians who fled to Kibati last week after their Kibumba camp, 25 kilometers north of Goma, was destroyed. ``Nobody knows where to go or what to do.''

Around Kibati alone, 65,000 people are sheltering in makeshift camps, the UN's relief agency, UNHCR, said today.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said while a diplomatic solution to the crisis is being sought, civilians in the area ``need urgent protection and security now.''

Tutsi Minority

More than two months of clashes between Nkunda's rebels and the army have killed at least 100 civilians and injured more than 150, according to Human Rights Watch. Nkunda says he's fighting to protect Congo's Tutsi minority from ethnic Hutu militias that took refuge in eastern Congo after participating in the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994.

``The fact that there have been killings confirms that the situation is very dangerous,'' Alan Doss, the head of the UN Mission in Congo, or Monuc, told reporters today in Nairobi. ``If the leaders of the region don't talk and don't lead, then we are in trouble.''

Monuc has asked the UN Security Council to approve the deployment of at least 1,600 more troops in Congo, Doss said. The UN's current force in the eastern North Kivu province is unable to protect civilians who are being deliberately attacked, Human Rights Watch's senior Africa researcher, Anneke van Woudenberg, said in an e-mailed statement.

Ban and the African leaders meeting in Nairobi should ``take immediate action to protect civilians who are at severe risk in eastern Congo,'' 10 rights groups and aid agencies, including Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, said today in an e-mailed statement.

`Urgent Appeal'

``Concerned governments should immediately respond to the UN's urgent appeal to send more peacekeepers to protect civilians, who have already suffered so grievously,'' Van Woudenberg said.

Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting Nkunda's movement. Kagame rejects the accusations and says Congo is cooperating with the mainly Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which threatens Rwanda's sovereignty. Congo dismisses the claim.

Kagame and his Congolese counterpart held bilateral talks at today's summit in Kenya, said Eddie Kwizera, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's special assistant in charge of the Great Lakes region.

Talking

On Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, Nkunda's forces and government-backed Mai-Mai militias deliberately killed civilians during clashes in Kiwanja, about 74 kilometers north of Goma, Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch said. At least 20 people died and 33 were wounded in the fighting, she said.

CNDP spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa yesterday said the rebel group's fighters had acted in self defense after being attacked in Kiwanja by people wearing civilian clothes. Mai-Mai spokesman Didier Bitaki denied his fighters target civilians in a phone interview from Goma yesterday.

Germaine Masika, one of at least 5,000 people who have set up makeshift shelters outside a UN base on the outskirts of Kiwanja, said residents are worried about further attacks by the CNDP after this week's killings.

``We've come here because this is the only place we think we are safe,'' Masika, whose seven children are missing, said in an interview today.

North Kivu's Civil Society Association declared tomorrow a day of mourning in Goma, asking people to stay at home and shops to remain shut.

``This is shameless ethnic killing,'' the association's president, Jason Luneno, said today in an interview from Goma. ``We are very sad about what happened to our brothers and sisters in Kiwanja.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net. To contact the reporter on this story: Franz Wild in Kiwanja, Congo, via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 7, 2008 10:35 EST