DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Fighting between rebels and the army causes a fresh refugee exodus in east Congo

Record ID: 375340

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Fighting between rebels and the army causes a fresh refugee exodus in east Congo
  • Date: 8th November 2008
  • Summary: U.N. OFFICER TALKING ON THE RADIO REFUGEES ON ROAD WITH UN SOLDIERS CARRYING MACHINE GUNS IN FOREGROUND MONUC SOLDIERS MOVING IN JEEP VARIOUS OF FARDC SOLDIERS ON ROAD, CHILD RUNNING IN FOREGROUND CARRYING HIS BELONGINGS U.N. ARMOURED CAR ON ROAD
  • Embargoed: 23rd November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA5FFJPWGWXKUPMTW3G6I4YM14X
  • Story Text: Thousands of civilians flee in panic as they are caught in crossfire between the rebels and Congolese army.
    Congolese Tutsi rebels and government troops fought near a refugee camp in east Congo on Friday (November 7), forcing thousands of civilians to flee in panic.
    Congolese and U.N. military officers said the two sides exchanged machine gun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire near Kibati in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, where 250,000 people have fled recent fighting.
    Thousands of refugees streamed back along the road towards the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, 7 km (4 miles) to the south.
    The clash occurred as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met African leaders at a summit at Nairobi in Kenya on Friday to try to end the conflict in eastern Congo.
    The fighting in North Kivu between Tutsi rebels loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and government troops backed by militia allies has raised fears of a repeat of a wider 1998-2003 war in the vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony.
    The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, which runs the Kibati camp, said the fighting had interrupted the distribution of aid and caused panic among the camp population.
    A spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUC) said the shooting broke out when rebel fighters advanced from their positions and fired into the air, drawing return fire from Congolese army (FARDC) troops.
    Witnesses said heavier firing broke out later, sending people running for cover and fleeing down the road.
    No details of casualties were immediately available.
    Witnesses saw a column of Congolese army troops heading north towards frontline positions occupied by Nkunda's rebels, who had suspended an offensive on Goma last week.
    A Uruguayan U.N. commander on the spot said the troops reinforcing the government lines were Angolans, but this could not be immediately confirmed elsewhere. Nkunda's rebels have accused the Congolese government of using Angolan troops.
    Angola has one of the largest armies in sub-Saharan Africa and intervened in Congo's earlier 1998-2003 war. Its government is a staunch ally of Kabila but said on Friday it would not interfere directly so as to avert worsening the crisis.
    The UNHCR said it was worried about the risk of innocent civilians being caught in the crossfire of fighting.
    Refugees and aid workers have been clamouring for more protection by the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo, whose commanders say they are thinly stretched across a country the size of West Europe which has few paved roads.
    U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Nkunda's rebels and government-backed Mai-Mai militias of deliberately killing civilians in fighting this week at Kiwanja, north of Goma.
    The number of people displaced by fighting in North Kivu province since September is now estimated at 250,000, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. This was in addition to 800,000 who had fled previous hostilities in the province bordering Rwanda.
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