A group of armed men has taken control of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunyakiri after Rwandan troops pulled out of the area, administrative sources said here Thursday.
Bunyakiri, which is around 60 kilometres north of Bukavu, the main town in Sud-Kivu province, was taken over by the group of as yet unidentified armed men immediately following Rwanda’s withdrawal of its troops, the officials said.
Rwanda has had a military presence in eastern DRC (FAR) soldiers, both blamed for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
President Paul Kagame agreed to withdraw Rwandan troops from DRC in an agreement signed on July 30 in Pretoria, South Africa with his DRC counterpart Joseph Kabila.
In exchange for the troop pull-out, the DRC promised to disarm and repatriate ex-FAR troops and Hutu rebels on DRC soil. Rwanda began withdrawing its troops from DRC on September 17, with the pull-out from troubled Sud-Kivu starting on October 1.
The withdrawal is expected to be completed by the end of the week. Bunyakiri is close to the Kahuzi-Biega national park, where large numbers of Rwandan Hutu since 1998, when it invaded its vast central African neighbour largely to protect its border against any incursions by Hutu rebels and ex-Rwandan Armed Forces extremists and tribal Mai-Mai militiamen are known to be based. – Sapa-AFP