A fresh bout of fighting between army and rebel forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left 19 dead, the government said today, on the eve of a visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Mortar fire rang out for a second day north of the regional hub Goma after the first clashes in six months
between the M23 rebellion that briefly seized the city in November and government troops broke out yesterday.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende told journalists that yesterday’s fighting had left 15 rebels dead and 21 injured, while four soldiers were killed and six injured.
M23 military spokesman Vianney Kazarama rejected the figures provided by Kinshasa however and said only two
loyalist troops were wounded and two rebels wounded.
During his visit, Ban will be accompanied by the World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, UN peacekeeping force chief Herve Ladsous and Mary Robinson who is the UN special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The visit comes after a UN-brokered accord was signed by 11 African heads of state on February 24 who vowed not to
interfere in the affairs of their neighbours.
The latest clashes in the east of the DRC near Goma emphasise yet again the urgency of implementing the
agreement,” Ban said during a visit to Mozambique.
Mende said that fighting continued Tuesday in the same area, 12 kilometres (seven miles) north of Goma, adding the
rebel assault was carefully planned and was “without doubt aimed at dissuading, even preventing, the deployment of the United Nations special intervention brigade.”
The latest fighting comes a week after the first troops from the UN’s first ever peacekeeping force with an offensive mandate were deployed.
The new brigade, which will include troops from Tanzania,South Africa and Malawi, is expected to initially focus on neutralising the M23.
One of the group’s main founders is Bosco Ntaganda, an ex-general in the Congolese military born in Rwanda and
nicknamed “the Terminator”, awaits trial at the International Criminal Court on several charges, including murder, rape and pillaging.
M23 and those who support it in the region deliberately carried out this attack to delay the advent of peace” in the mineral-rich region, said Mende.
He repeated accusations that M23 was receiving help from abroad, without naming the countries.
“Heavy weaponry and several cases of ammunition from the exterior have been recovered in two enemy positions which have fallen under the control of the Congolese army.”
———————–(AFP)