Her baby son strapped to her back, Sifa Mapendo gestures wearily at the few belongings her family was able to grab before they ran from their home in DR Congo in the wake of fierce clashes.
"We heard the shooting and then the people were running, even the government soldiers were running, and so we ran too," Mapendo, 21, said.
"There were many people injured but we managed to get away quickly, even though it meant we had to leave almost everything behind."
Mapendo is among the latest wave of people forced to flee fierce fighting between soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo army and rebel troops.
In recent days renegade soldiers from the M23 rebel group – who deserted from the national army this year – have seized a series of key towns from government forces close to the border with Uganda in eastern Congo.
After walking for two days with her husband and four small children, Mapendo finally reached the safety of the remote border town of Busanza in Uganda.
As she waited for a police truck to ferry her and around 40 other refugees to the nearest camp, she worried about the future.
"We want them to stop fighting so we can go home, but what can we do? We can just stay in Uganda and wait," she said.
The Nyakabande refugee transit camp, some 15km from the border, has mushroomed in size in the past few weeks – row upon row of white UN tents now housing over 13 000 refugees from nearby Congo.
Since the rebellion flared earlier this year over 30 000 Congolese have registered as refugees in Uganda, while thousands more are yet to be officially listed, government officials said.
For many of those now flocking across the border, the terrified trek to seek refuge in Uganda is nothing new.
Alice Katendo, a mother of six, already spent two years as a refugee in Uganda after she fled a 2008 armed rebellion by the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) – many of whose members now make up the current M23 rebels.
She was told it was safe to return to eastern Congo, but after little more than a year back home has been forced to flee once again.
"Last time we were here for a long time," Katendo said. "I hope now it will only be a few months but it is impossible to know."
While the rebels say they have established order in the towns they hold and some inhabitants cross over from Uganda during the day time to look for food, many at the camp say they are still too frightened to go home.
"If you go back then you are just seeking problems," said Fidel Prince, 18, another refugee. "The war is going on and you could be shot either by rebels or government troops."
However, while eastern Congo is once again plunged into chaos, officials on the Ugandan side say that they have learnt from the previous experience.
But the speed and size of the refugee influx this time round has still stretched resources, and officials fear that if the rebels push on the situation will get worse.
"It is like history repeating itself – we have experience from the last time but now the rate of refugee arrivals is higher and the situation is more difficult," said Ahmed Doka, the local Ugandan district commissioner.
And it is not just civilians who have sought refuge in Uganda.
Sprawled around a tree trunk on the lawn of the local Ugandan army barracks in Kisoro, the closest town to the border, elite troops from a Congolese commando unit sleep or smoke cigarettes.
They were among roughly 600 Congolese soldiers who abandoned heavy weapons and equipment and fled across the border into Uganda when the rebels stormed the border town of Bunagana on Thursday.
"In military tactics we often call that a tactical withdrawal," said Petit Petit Tamata, a company commander in the Belgian-trained 322nd battalion.
"Our company was faced by an enemy that was superior we withdrew to protect our capacity," he said, adding that two of the company's soldiers were killed as they battled the rebels for half a day.
But as he waits to be moved with his troops to another camp further from the conflict area, Tamata says his defeated troops are keen to return to the fray.
"We are here for now and waiting to hear from our government but we are set on going back to Congo... we are ready to start fighting again." – Sapa-AFP
IOLSA