More than 250,000 people have fled their homes during the recent upsurge in violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, aid agencies report. Alice Fay, from Tearfund, reported that a makeshift camp beside a church now contained 10,000 people. “The scale of what we saw was greater than we’d imagined. It was truly shocking.” A French government official, Eric Chevallier, said this week that UN peacekeepers should use force, if necessary, to protect civilians. The Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal for Congo. www.dec.org.uk; www.tearfund.org.uk