Rebels take military boot camp

2008-10-09 10:02

Goma - Renegade general Laurent Nkunda's forces have seized an army camp in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo amid violent clashes elsewhere on Wednesday in the turbulent region, sources said.

A spokesperson for Nkunda's rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) said it had taken control of a training camp about 50km north of the provincial capital Goma.

"The military camp of Rumangabo has fallen into the hands of the CNDP with all its weapons," Bertrand Bisimwa said.

Several military sources confirmed the capture, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Army general Marcellin Lukama confirmed several clashes across the Nord-Kivu province.

Wednesday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in DR Congo (MONUC) said clashes had broken out two days earlier between FARDC and CNDP forces in four towns north-west of Goma.

Citing DR Congo military officials based in Goma, MONUC spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said: "Sixteen rebel fighters may have died in the fighting that took place throughout most of Monday."

The army had claimed about 60 rebels had been killed since Monday.

A spokesperson for the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) said approximately 50 wounded people had been taken to Rutshuru hospital, about 65km north of Goma.

Renewed fighting broke out August 28 in eastern DR Congo, with government troops and Nkunda's CNDP violating the ceasefire reached under the Goma peace accord in January.

On Sunday, Kinshasa accused neighbouring Rwanda of "visibly supporting" the rebel CNDP forces, whose leader Nkunda last week called on all Congolese people to "stand up" to the national government.

- AFP