100 000 displaced in Congo
2004-12-20 12:35
Congo - Renegade soldiers are continuing to battle troops loyal to the Congolese government in fighting that has displaced at least 100 000 people in eastern Congo over the last week, UN officials said.
The two sides clashed on Sunday north of the town of Kanyabayonga - the epicentre of battles between troops sent east by the Kinshasa-based central government and the renegade force largely drawn from rebels backed by neighbouring Rwanda during Congo's 1998-2002 war, said Eliane Nabaa, a UN spokesperson.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Sunday's fighting. An Associated Press reporter in Kanyabayonga on Saturday saw 10 corpses of loyalist soldiers lying unburied, as mortars thudded into the town's hills.
Congo's government now includes former insurgents, even as army soldiers, but it has struggled to extend its authority into the vast nation's east, plagued by ethnic fighting and revolts by soldiers who once fought for the Rwandan-backed rebels.
The latest fighting broke out north of Goma, Congo's main eastern city, on December 12, and at least 100 000 civilians are now believed to have since fled the area, said Rachel Leflaive, spokesperson in Congo for the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Towns and villages abandoned
Leflaive said the agency determined the tally of the displaced after finding all towns and villages abandoned on a trip along a 32-kilometre stretch of road north of Kanyabayonga this week.
"All were empty," she said, adding: "Not only that, but we also saw hardly anybody on the road. They have fled towards the forest."
Aid workers have not been able to reach the displaced because of safety fears, Leflaive said.
Earlier aid-agency estimates said only 35 000 had fled their homes.
The United Nations said this week that foreign troops had crossed into Congo - raising concerns of a return to the war that embroiled Central Africa.
However neighbouring Rwanda continues to deny that any of its troops have crossed the border, despite repeated threats to send them to disarm Rwandan Hutu militias based in eastern Congo.
- AP