EMMANUEL GOUJON, Kigali | Sunday 5.00pm
UGANDAN troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo twice attacked Rwandan forces late on Saturday at an airport near Kisangani, in the northeast of the DRC, a Rwandan government official and other sources said on Sunday.
Uganda and Rwanda, formerly allied in the fight against DRC President Laurent Kabila, now support rival rebel groups in the former Zaire and relations between them have grown strained.
Earlier reports said the fighting took place on Sunday, but it later emerged that the brief clashes ocurred at Kisangani’s Bangoka airport around 9.00pm on Saturday, and that one wing of the main rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), was also involved in the skirmishes.
“The Ugandan army deployed troops all night to surround the airport, and they tried to block us in, they fired and there was a skirmish,” said Rwandan government spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Wilson Rutayisire. This is the first time Rwanda has officially acknowledged its forces have clashed with Ugandan troops on the ground in the DRC.
Troops from both Uganda and Rwanda have been stationed at Bangoka airport, some 17 kilometres from the rebel-held town. The Rwandan troops have dug in and set up anti-aircraft defences around the airport. Midweek, Uganda sent reinforcements to Kisangani and on Thursday, Ugandan troops guarding the airport building denied customs officials access to their offices and said only Ugandan flights will use the airport.
The latest fighting follows high-level diplomatic efforts to resolve the differences between the two rebel factions and their respective supporters.
Key players in these efforts are South Africa and Zambia, which both sent senior delegations to Kisangani last week principally to secure an RCD signature on a peace accord signed last month by the six states with troops fighting in the DRC war.
The RCD split earlier this year when most of its military contingent announced it no longer wanted founding leader Wamba dia Wamba, whom Uganda continues to support, to head the movement which took up arms against Kabila a year ago. — AFP
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