DRC army battles rebels
2007-10-31 21:06
Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo's army on Wednesday exchanged artillery fire with renegade troops led by dissident sacked general Laurent Nkunda, the military and the UN observer mission said.
The commander in Nord-Kivu province, General Vainqueur Mayala said: "There was fighting near Rugari this morning (on Wednesday), but the situation has calmed down."
No details of casualties
The artillery battle about 30km north of the provincial capital Goma was the first in Nord-Kivu in 10 days and since President Joseph Kabila gave the regular army the green light to forcibly disarm Nkunda's men if they failed to demobilise by the end of the year.
Neither the army nor the UN mission had any details of casualties in the latest outbreak of violence that has displaced some 350 000 villagers this year alone in a province wracked by violence among rival armed movements.
General Mayala said that Nkunda, a Congolese ethnic Tutsi who claims to be protecting that minority population in eastern DR Congo, now leads "about 3 000 men.
"There are desertions every day.
"The Congolese are coming to be integrated into the army and there are also defections among the Rwandans, who are going home," he added, referring to the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu movement that includes people blamed for the neighbouring country's 1994 genocide.
Atrocities against civilians
Relief agencies are very alarmed at the scale of the humanitarian crisis in the eastern DRC, because their workers cannot access conflict-ridden highlands.
A series of recent reports has blamed all parties, including the regular army, for widespread atrocities against civilians.
Both Kabila and his foes are under strong international pressure to stop the clashes, but European Union and other central African Great Lakes region envoys and analysts have said a lasting settlement in Nord-Kivu can only be achieved at regional level.
- SAPA