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The UN’s refugee agency UNHCR says it is alarmed by an escalation of violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In one week more than 1,200 people have fled by boat to Tanzania – most of them women and children.
More than 7,000 arrived in Burundi after Congolese government soldiers launched attacks against a rebel group earlier this month.
The UNHCR says most have fled their homes in South Kivu Province because they were stuck between the two fighting groups.
There have also been reports of forced recruitment.
The UN mission in Congo is the world’s largest, with some 18,000 troops at a cost of more than $1bn a year.
Last weekend a Pakistani peacekeeper was killed by rebels in an ambush. In December, in Congo’s north Kivu province, 14 Tanzanian peacekeepers were killed and dozens wounded in another rebel attack.
