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UN soldiers clash with rebels
16/02/2008 18:42 - (SA)
Kinshasa - UN peacekeepers trying to
enforce a ceasefire signed last month have clashed with Tutsi
rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United
Nations said on Saturday.
One rebel was wounded in the incident on Friday and several
were arrested by the South African peacekeepers, a spokesperson for
the UN mission in Congo (Monuc) said.
Congo's government, Tutsi insurgents loyal to renegade
General Laurent Nkunda and Mai Mai militia signed a ceasefire on
January 23 aimed at ending more than a decade of violence in
eastern North and South Kivu provinces.
The peacekeepers were investigating a shooting in the town
of Tongo, 65 km northeast of the North Kivu
provincial capital Goma, when they came across a group of Nkunda
fighters escorting a prisoner.
"Not only did they not stop, but they opened fire on the
blue helmets, who returned fire. It was self-defence and within
the rules of engagement," Monuc spokesperson Kemal Saiki said.
A UN patrol later found two bodies, one of them of a small
boy, apparently the victims of an earlier shooting by Nkunda's
rebels, Saiki said.
Nkunda's military spokesperson Seraphin Mirindi told
UN-sponsored Radio Okapi the rebels regretted the clash with
the UN troops. They denied killing any civilians in Tongo.
The overall ceasefire appears to be holding, Saiki said.
Since it was signed there have been frequent clashes between
Nkunda's rebels and the Mai Mai militia Pareco faction.
Monuc has more than 30 bases in North Kivu province as part
of efforts to set up a buffer zone between the warring groups
under the ceasefire, which seeks to establish a definitive peace
in eastern Congo.
Fighting in the east raged on despite the formal end of
Congo's 1998-2003 war. The conflict and its accompanying
humanitarian crisis have killed 5.4 million people in a decade,
the highest toll of any conflict since World War Two, according
to aid group International Rescue Committee.
Around 450 000 North Kivu residents have fled from their
homes to escape violence in the last year.
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