Rebels withdraw from DRC town
2008-11-18 14:07
Goma - Laurent Nkunda's rebel group announced on Tuesday it was withdrawing fighters from around a strategic town in the Democratic Republic of Congo to boost a peace mission by the UN special envoy.
The move came after President Laurent Kabila sacked his army chief over a series of battleground defeats and France called on the UN Security Council for a surge of peacekeeping forces to protect tens of thousands of displaced.
Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) said it wanted UN peacekeepers to police a zone created by their withdrawal from two frontlines, including near the strategic town of Kanyabayonga.
The CNDP decided it "must make a unilateral withdrawal of its troops for a distance of 40km on the Kanyabayonga-Nyanzale front and the Kabasha-Kiwanja front," a rebel statement said.
It said the CNDP wanted to "give a new chance" to peace efforts launched by UN envoy Olusegun Obgasanjo, the former Nigerian president.
Obasanjo held a meeting on Sunday with Nkunda at his jungle headquarters in the east of the country.
UN forces should "take charge of the security of these separation zones and ensure that no other force occupies them", the rebel statement said.
Friendly fire
Recent fighting has brought Nkunda's forces to 20km from Kanyabayonga, a town of 50 000 and strategic hub for most of the north of the disputed Nord-Kivu province.
France on Monday presented a UN Security Council draft resolution that would increase the number of UN forces in DR Congo by about 3 000, diplomatic sources say.
The draft calls for a temporary increase in the size of the UN mission's "authorised military strength by up to 2 785 military personnel, and the strength of its formed police unit by up to 300 personnel."
It would authorise the deployment of those additional personnel until 31 December 2008 when the mandate of the UN mission in DR Congo comes up for renewal.
The UN force, in place since 2001, currently has 17 000 soldiers, including about 5 000 in eastern Congo, where fighting between government forces and the rebels has intensified in recent weeks.
The Congolese army and pro-government militias clashed on Tuesday near Kanyabayonga in what the Mai-Mai militia said was a case of friendly fire.
Government soldiers looted villages and attacked local people after the incident, the militia's leader said.
A local administration official said that there had been armed incidents involving the army through the night at Kirumba and the nearby district of Kayna.
The shooting had sparked a new exodus of villagers into forests, the official in Kirumba said in a telephone interview.
"Light arms fire was heard all through the night, apparently shots in the air. All of the population has fled into the forest, only a few administrative officials are left and they are hiding in the town," said the official.
The DR Congo president named a new military chief of staff following a series of humiliating reversals for the army in the east.
"Given the necessity and the urgency (of the current conflict), General Didier Etumba Longomba has been named chief of staff," according to a presidential order read out on national television.
'A reasonable man'
Longomba replaces Dieudonne Kayembe on the day a court martial condemned one government soldier to life imprisonment for war crimes including rape. Three others were sentenced to the same terms for abandoning their posts and looting.
In an interview broadcast on Monday, Obasanjo insisted Nkunda was someone he could do business with but said his mediation efforts could not be expected to yield instant results.
"I believe he's a reasonable man that can listen and react to persuasion," he told the BBC.
He also played down expectations of immediate results following his visit.
A UN document showed Nkunda's demands also include a review of lucrative mining contracts with Chinese companies.