DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Congo rebel chief says "war" if there are no talks with the government

Record ID: 789087

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Congo rebel chief says "war" if there are no talks with the government
  • Date: 30th November 2008
  • Summary: OBASANJO AND NKUNDA AND DELEGATION COMING OUT MEETING ROOM
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVACSM9W9XP9MR07KNSZMITB5NWC
  • Story Text: After meeting with UN envoy and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, General Laurent Nkunda, the Congo rebel leader threatens "war" if there are no talks with the government.
    Congolese Tutsi rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda threatened war on Saturday (November 29) unless Congo's government entered a new round of talks with him.
    Nkunda, whose forces have routed government troops and gained swathes of territory in North Kivu province in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo since launching a new offensive in August, has repeatedly demanded negotiations with the government.
    Nkunda said he had been told by the United Nations' special envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, that Kinshasa had accepted the principle of talks.
    But he made it clear what going back on that deal would mean.

    "If there is no negotiation, that means to say that there is war," Nkunda told reporters after meeting Obasanjo in the rebel commander's native village, Jomba.

    "I know that (the government) has no capacity to fight, so they have only one choice, negotiations," he added.
    Obasanjo was in Congo on his second mission in two weeks aimed at ending fighting in North Kivu that has displaced some 250,000 civilians and at one point brought Nkunda's troops to within 10 km (6 miles) of the provincial capital, Goma.
    The U.N. envoy met President Joseph Kabila in the capital of the mineral-rich central African country on Friday (November 29).
    Government ministers this week rebuffed the possibility of direct negotiations with Nkunda, calling for him to return to an earlier peace pact signed in January.
    Emerging from his one-hour meeting with the rebel leader, Obasanjo said, " We have advanced the course of peace."
    A ceasefire declared by Nkunda has halted battles with government troops and brought nearly two weeks of relative calm.
    But his men have continued attacking Congolese and Rwandan militia allies of the government, sending thousands of refugees fleeing east into Uganda.
    Around 1 million civilians have been displaced by clashes between the CNDP, the army, local Mai Mai militias, and Rwandan rebels since Nkunda relaunched his insurgency in late 2006.
    The U.N. Security Council agreed earlier this month to send 3,000 more troops to boost Congo's beleaguered mission, the world's largest peacekeeping force with around 17,000 soldiers and police.
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