OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.00pm.
DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo rebels on Wednesday said they killed at least 50 Rwandan Hutu and Mai-Mai fighters when rebel troops attempted to cut the road outside rebel headquarters in Goma.
Lunda Bululu, one of rebel leaders, said the road was opened after a two-hour gunbattle, and soldiers on foot patrolled the area and searched houses for the attackers believed to hiding in and around the rebel stronghold at the northern end of Lake Kivu. Bululu said five women and one child at Ndosha orphanage just outside Goma, were killed when the attackers opened fire from banana plantations.
On Wednesday, rebel leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba flew to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, for consultations with the Rwandan authorities.
Meanwhile, African leaders on Tuesday defended their decision to intervene in the conflict, telling heads of state that the sprawling central African nation would collapse if rebels ousted President Laurent Kabila. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Namibian foreign minister Theo-Ben Gurirab said his country sent in troops “for the sole purpose of preventing the collapse of the state machinery and the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of a fellow African country.