Lubumbashi is the centre of the country's copper, cobalt and precious metals reserves.

Observers say the rebels appear to be preparing a pincer movement on the city from Kamina in the north-west and Kasenga in the northeast.

The rebels took Kasenga last week.

Meanwhile, a United Nations spokesman

Relations between Italy and Albania have been strained since Friday's sinking of an Albanian refugee ship in the Adriatic Sea. Four people drowned and 34 were rescued. Survivors said another 80 refugees are missing. The survivors also blamed an Italian coast guard ship for ramming their boat and causing it to sink.

"As a result of our trip, we have decided to double our appeal to 200,000 metric tons of food and to increase our caseload to include all children under six in the country," Michael Ross, a member of the program's inspection team, said.

In visits to Pyongyang and three southern

UNHCR field workers today described the situation of about 100,000 refugees between Ubundu and Kisangani in eastern Zaire as "catastrophic". A UNHCR spokeswoman said in Geneva that further re-location of refugees by forces of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) would be "inhumane".

Refugees in very poor physical shape

"We confirm that Agigi is in the hands of the armed forces," Sudanese Culture and Information Minister Brigadier Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Khair told a news conference.

"The army has contained the joint offensive of the Eritreans and the rebels in Karora after destroying two

* Des representants du Haut Commissariat aux Refugies qui travaillent sur le terrain ont decrit aujourd'hui la situation de pres de 100.000 refugies entre Ubundu et Kisangani dans l'est du Zaire comme "catastrophique". Un porte-parole du Haut Commissariat aux Refugies a declare a Geneve que de nouvelles reallocations de refugies par les troupes de l'Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation

For further information, contact Maurice Herson in the Emergencies Department.

[ Telephone 01865 312540; e-mail mherson@oxfam.org.uk ]

Central Africa (Great Lakes)
Zaire/Zambia/Rwanda/Burundi/Tanzania

The rebel Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaïre (ADFL) has continued to make great military advances in the east of Zaïre. Attempts at political settlement of the