Rebel violence is latest in string of plagues afflicting Congo's Goma

Lobuta Colletta has borne witness to Goma's decline. First from a comfortable home and now from a cramped shack, the mother of eight has seen mass murder and cholera, volcanic eruptions and civil war.

"This part of the country must be cursed," she says.

The troubles are back. Rebel fighters threatened to invade Goma late last month, sending thousands of residents fleeing across the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring Rwanda. Peace talks with renegade rebel leader Laurent Nkunda led to a cease-fire, though sporadic skirmishes continue and rebels remain less than 10 miles away.

The reprieve has allowed Goma's 600,000 inhabitants to reclaim some sense of normality. But around here, "normal" is a relative term. Colletta's husband has lost his government job. Her children are often sent home from school because the family has no money for fees.

When the rebels threatened last month, the family slept on the floor to avoid flying bullets. A couple next door were shot by looting government soldiers, who frequently rob the citizens they are supposed to protect.

"We live like animals," said Colletta, 44.

In a sign of how bad things are, Goma's residents now say that life under brutal Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko is seen as the "good old days."

Then, this eastern Congolese border town was looked at as the Switzerland of Africa, envied for its natural beauty, stability and prosperity. A vast agricultural industry of coffee, tea, potatoes, beans and cheese fed not only Congo, but the entire region. Gold and tin mines pumped the local economy. Tourism flourished thanks to lush parks and a nearby population of several hundred mountain gorillas.

The relative idyll began unraveling with the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, when bodies clogged Lake Kivu and millions of refugees fled here, trampling Congolese farmland, depleting resources and bringing cholera and other epidemics.

Then Goma became a launching pad for two civil wars, one of which escalated into a regional conflict known as Africa's First World War. The most recent estimates put the war's death toll at 5 million, mostly due to disease and malnutrition, with many of the fatalities in Goma.