DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: A U.N. peacekeeper is killed and three others are wounded in an operation to drive back M23 rebels in eastern Congo, U.N spokesman says

Record ID: 375649

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: A U.N. peacekeeper is killed and three others are wounded in an operation to drive back M23 rebels in eastern Congo, U.N spokesman says
  • Date: 29th August 2013
  • Summary: INJURED MAN LYING ON BED STREET
  • Embargoed: 13th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Congo, The Democratic Republic of the
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Reuters ID: LVADDD0RTZSAMGJWVNKIALX12IFK
  • Story Text: A U.N. peacekeeper from Tanzania was killed and three other blue-helmeted troops were wounded on Wednesday (August 28) in an operation with the Congolese army to drive back M23 rebels from the city of Goma in eastern Congo, a U.N spokesman said.
    Democratic Republic of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission used helicopters, artillery and ground troops in support of government forces that launched the assault on rebel positions north of Goma, a city of 1 million people on the Rwandan border.
    A 3,000-strong U.N. intervention brigade, with a tough new mandate to protect civilians and neutralise armed groups in the mineral-rich central African nation, sprang into action last week after the United Nations accused the rebels of shelling the city.
    The M23 rebels, aware that their presence within striking distance of Goma is key to their leverage in stalled peace talks, have fiercely resisted Congolese army efforts to push them back.
    Wednesday's fighting focused on the high ground around the village of Kibati, 11 km (7 miles) north of Goma.
    Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, later said that the dead peacekeeper was a Tanzanian.
    A U.N. official in Goma said Indian peacekeepers and members of the intervention brigade - composed of Tanzanian, South African and Malawian troops - had taken part in the fighting.
    MONUSCO's top military official said that at least one, and possibly two shells fell inside Goma late on Wednesday.
    Residents of the city's Mabanga Nord neighbourhood told a Reuters witness that a 14-year-old boy was killed and others injured in one of the blasts.

    "I say that enough is enough, the war has lasted too long in DRC. This time... the Rwandans have to be aware that what they are trying to do with the DRC, that bothers a lot... We don't have the intention of torturing the Rwandans, but if they want us to do it we are very ready to do it," said a local resident.
    Mortar bombs and rockets have struck both sides of Congo's border with Rwanda in the past week, raising tensions between two neighbours which have fought two wars since the 1990s.
    Congo has blamed M23 for firing into Rwanda to try to draw in Kigali, which U.N. investigators accused of supporting the 18-month rebellion - a charge Rwanda has denied.
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