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DRC fighting enters 4th day
29/11/2006 08:17 - (SA)
Sake - The United Nations-backed government forces battled renegade troops loyal to a local warlord in a fourth day of fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where a UN helicopter strafed hills and gunfire echoed as hundreds of people fled the area.
Ending such violence in the country's lawless east was a major challenge for President Joseph Kabila, who was declared official winner of the DRC's landmark presidential ballot by the supreme court.
Kabila's challenger, Jean-Pierre Bemba, conceded defeat on Tuesday, but denounced the verdict and said he would continue his struggle politically through the opposition to "preserve peace and save the country from sinking into chaos and violence".
Volcano destroys Goma
Elsewhere in the east, the Mount Nyamulagira volcano continued to spew lava for a second day, but didn't appear to threaten the provincial capital, Goma, which was destroyed by another volcano four years ago.
The latest skirmish began on Saturday after forces loyal to former army general Laurent Nkunda attacked Sake, a small town on the northern tip of Lake Kivu, about 30km west of Goma.
By Monday, Nkunda's fighters were pushed back into hills a few kilometres east of the town, but gunfire could still echoed through the area on Tuesday as sporadic battles continued. A UN helicopter fired into the hills as Nkunda fighters dug in there.
Hundreds of people carrying mattresses and suitcases filled the road between Sake and Goma. Sake's population was estimated at 12 000, but the town was mostly deserted.
Nkunda controls thousands of fighters
The Congolese army said that at least three of its soldiers had died and about 50 were wounded. The body of one Congolese soldier was seen in Sake and those of three fighters army troops identified as Nkunda's men outside town.
Kemal Saiki of the UN said a delegation of Congolese and UN officials had arrived in Goma and was headed to Sake to broker a cease-fire.
Nkunda, a former general, quit Congo's army and launched a low-level rebellion after the war ended, alleging the transition to democracy was flawed and excluded the minority Tutsi community. Nkunda controlled thousands of fighters and claimed the loyalty of two army brigades.
The UN, which now had about 800 peacekeepers in Sake, entered the conflict on Monday after coming under fire by Nkunda's troops as they attempted to advance toward Goma.
The UN had about 17 500 peacekeepers in the Central African country trying to maintain calm as the DRC tried to make the transition to democracy after a 1998-2002 war and decades of dictatorship.
Although a peace deal ended the broader war, the government had struggled for years to gain control of the vast, lawless east, which had been periodically wracked by violence from Congolese militiamen and Rwandan rebels who fled the 1994 genocide.
- AP
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