Troops enter strategic village
2007-12-05 10:14
Goma - Democratic Republic of Congo troops entered Mushake, a strategic eastern village, on Tuesday after a second day of heavy clashes with rebel soldiers, said officers.
Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, second-in-command of the army in Nord-Kivu province, said: "Fighting is still going on in Mushake. We are conducting a search operation throughout the area before confirming the conquest of this position."
However, an officer on the ground said the village had fallen under army control.
"I am now in Mushake. Mushake fell after violent combat this evening between the 14th Brigade and the insurgents," said Colonel John Tshibangu.
Mushake was considered a "strategic position" for insurgents loyal to former general Laurent Nkunda in Nord-Kivu.
Fighting displaces 500 000 civilians
Fighting in the past two days had killed four soldiers and injured about 20, according to General Vainqueur Mayala, who commanded army forces in Nord-Kivu. He did not have details on insurgent casualties.
"The operations are continuing. Things are going well," he said.
Heavy clashes took place in Nord-Kivu since late August between some 20 000 army troops and about 4 000 insurgents soldiers.
The fighting had displaced between 400 000 and 500 000 civilians, according to the United Nations.
The army took back several villages from insurgents around the town of Sake, some 30km northwest of the provincial, capital Goma, on Monday.
Mushake sat on a hill some 10km west of Sake and had been held by insurgents since August. The army wanted to retake the village before moving north.
Dissident colonel Esaie Munyakazi said: "They are continuing to attack us. The fighting is violent, but they will not force us out."
A military spokesperson for the United Nations mission in the DRC, major Vivek Goyal, said insurgents had put up "strong resistance" and had likely been provided with reinforcements.
The United States recently urged Nkunda - a Congolese Tutsi who claimed to be protecting his community from Rwandan Hutu rebels - to surrender and go into exile to avoid a bloody showdown with the army.