DRC violence enters 3rd day
2007-11-23 11:50
Goma - Explosions and machine-gun fire echoed through the hills of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, as government troops battled rebels for a third day straight amid a worsening humanitarian crisis that had displaced nearly 200 000 people in the past few months, says a United Nations military spokesperson.
Clashes between the army and insurgents loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda erupted early on Friday around Rugari, about 35km north of the regional capital, Goma, said Major Viveck Goyal, a spokesperson for the 18 000-strong peacekeeping force.
Goyal said: "The initial information we have is that the Nkunda elements are being pushed away from Rugari." Neither the army nor rebels could be reached for comment.
DRC's government had struggled with little success to establish authority over the lawless eastern regions of the country, particularly the volatile province of North Kivu.
500 000 Tutsis killed
In North Kivu, the army and at least three other factions controlled their own patches of territory, openly manning roadblocks on dirt tracks that wind through hundreds of steep green hills.
Nkunda defected from the army several years ago and formed his own militia soon after the DRC's war ended in 2002.
He claimed that he needed to protect his minority Tutsi ethnic group from Rwandan rebels who had occupied forests in east DRC since fleeing Rwanda's 1994 genocide, which their leaders helped organise.
More than 500 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the mass Rwandan slaughter 13 years ago.
Nkunda and his fighters rejoined the army earlier this year, but broke away again months later. The latest round of clashes between Nkunda's men and government loyalists erupted in August and had continued sporadically despite attempts to broker a truce between the two sides.
Army units repel another attack
Skirmishes in Rugari on Thursday forced hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians to flee down a main road from Goma.
Meanwhile, army units on Wednesday repelled another attack by Nkunda fighters on a military base in Rutshuru, 30km north of Rugari.
That attack forced thousands of people in Rutshuru to flee, "many for a second or third time," said the UN World Food Programme.
Though most Rutshuru residents had returned, "the constant forced movement is wearing down the survival strategies of a population that is already extremely vulnerable", WFP said.
Last week, tens of thousands of people fled two camps on the rocky volcanic plains of Mugunga, just east of Goma, after Nkunda fighters attacked an artillery-equipped army position on a hilltop overlooking it. Most residents returned, but found the temporary huts looted.
The fighting had battered impoverished North Kivu, forcing more than 176 000 people to flee in the last several months, according to the UN figures.
However, the region had been insecure for years and the latest violence had pushed the total number of displaced in the province to about 800 000.
- AP