The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) asked the UN Security Council on Friday to take urgent action to force Libya to withdraw troops which have allegedly entered the DRC in support of rebel groups.
In a letter to the council president, Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia, it asked the council to condemn Libya’s action and ”to demand the immediate withdrawal of its troops from the territory of the DRC”.
The letter, marked ”very urgent”, was signed by Nduku Booto, charge d’affaires at the DRC mission to the United Nations.
It did not specify how many Libyans were in the DRC, but said that ”for more than a month, the territory occupied by the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) has been the scene of continuous movement by Antonov heavy lifter aircraft”.
On Thursday, Kinshasa’s ambassador to South Africa accused Libya of sending tanks and ammunition into Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Bene M’Poko, who is also a member of the government delegation at DRC peace talks in Pretoria, said Libya was sending the supplies and equipment to towns held by the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) which recently sent troops across DRC’s northern border into the Central African Republic to aid Libyan troops supporting President Ange-Felix Patasse against rebels.
”They (the Libyans) have brought 14 army tanks into the DRC via Uganda,” said M’Poko.
At least seven of these Libyan tanks went from Kampala to Gbadolite (on the DRC border with the Central African Republic),” he said.
”They have also moved a lot of ammunition from Bangui in the Central African Republic to Gbadolite. They have used Libyan warplanes to transport this ammunition and other material. Libyan troops have occupied the airport of Zongo in the DRC, on the border with the Central African Republic, for the purpose of moving this equipment”.
”Our intelligence confirms that the Libyans are in the DRC,” said the ambassador who was not able to give numbers for the Libyan troops in his country.
”The MLC is supposed to be negotiating peace here but it is allowing the Libyans to move men and arms into the DRC,” M’Poko said.
”I don’t know what the MLC and the Libyans are playing at. It is obvious they are preparing for war and conflict while the rest of us are looking for peace,” he said as government, rebel, militia, opposition and civil society representatives prepared responses to a draft agreement on a government of national unity and a transitional constitution prepared by mediators.
Asked about reports that the Libyans were trying to establish a rear base for continuing their military operations in support of the Central African government, MPoko said: ”It is not clear what they are doing there, but they have no right to use my country as a base for anything.
”I hope this action by Libya and the MLC will not wreck the talks,” the ambassador said. – Sapa-AFP