Women, kids killed in clashes

2003-11-04 09:24

Kinshasa, Congo - Thousands of civilians have fled clashes between rival militiamen in the dense forests of eastern Congo, a United Nations official said on Monday.

Skirmishes between Congolese Mayi-Mayi tribal fighters and Rwandan rebels broke out a week ago in Bunyakiri, a small village in South Kivu province which borders Burundi, UN spokesperson Hamadoun Toure told reporters.

Clashes spread several days later to Mwenga, also in South Kivu, Toure said.

Colonel Emmanuel Mapenzi said the skirmishes ended early on Monday, but Toure said he had no confirmation hostilities had come to a halt. Neither could give exact casualty figures.

"Right now, nobody knows if the fighting has stopped," Toure said. "Thousands of people have fled the clashes, which have inflicted fatalities and injuries essentially among women and children."

The Mayi-Mayi were allied for years with the Rwandan ethnic Hutu rebels, blamed for the deaths of over half a million people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Congo's new transitional government, inaugurated in June, says it has been trying to hunt down the Rwandan rebels - a key demand of neighbouring Rwanda, which has twice invaded Congo over the issue.

The new government includes former Congolese rebels backed by Rwanda and neighbouring Uganda, as well as factions of nationalist Mayi-Mayi tribal fighters. Mapenzi, the army colonel, was also a former Mayi-Mayi militiaman.

Rwandan Fotion's north and east remain volatile, however, with deadly attacks and ethnic fighting.

- AP