Shooting resumes Bukavu
2004-05-28 18:40
Bukavu - Sporadic shooting resumed on Friday morning in the east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bukavu, where at least 10 people were killed over the previous two days in clashes between rival army units.
The gunfire and mortar explosions were less frequent on Friday than earlier in the week.
The streets were empty as most residents were holed up in their homes. Electricity was cut and shops in some areas near the Rwandan border had been looted.
"The regular army said they had lost five men and that 19 were wounded," Sebastien Lapierre, a spokesperson for the UN mission in DRC, who is in Bukavu, said.
He added that three civilians, including two children had been killed and four wounded by stray bullets.
Colonel Jules Mutebusi, who is regarded as a "renegade" army officer and whose men have been fighting the regular troops, said that he had lost two men.
Mutebusi said he was still in Bukavu.
Several former rebel movements joined the DRC government last year and their fighting units were integrated into the army.
According to military sources and the UN mission, the fighting in Bukavu involved men loyal to Mutebusi, a former rebel commander who was recently suspended from his post as deputy commander of the 10th military region because of his involvement in earlier clashes.
One military source said the fighting followed the refusal of Mutebusi's men to allow other army units to patrol in areas under his control.
A Bukavu resident said two of these men had been arrested by the army shortly before the shooting broke out.
The region's military commander, Felix Budja Mabe, placed the blame squarely on Mutebusi on Thursday, saying some of his men "wanted to cross the border into Rwanda (on Wednesday) evening but the police there stopped them and the men opened fire."
- SAPA