Congolese soldiers fought troops loyal to a renegade commander near the eastern town of Bukavu on Tuesday, breaking a shaky ceasefire and spurring United Nations peacekeepers to try to negotiate an end to the violence, a UN spokesperson said.
Brigadier General Laurent Nkunda, a former rebel commander whose troops marched on Bukavu’s airport on Monday, had earlier declared an end to the conflict after the government set up arrangements in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) troubled South Kivu province to prevent the persecution of the minority Tutsi community.
Nkunda said he ordered his troops to halt their advance early on Tuesday near the airport 20km north of Bukavu to allow a Congolese vice-president to visit the city on Tuesday to look into the grievances of the Tutsi community, known as the Banyamulenge.
UN spokesperson Sebastien Lapierre, though, said fighting broke out again on Tuesday morning near the airport, which is controlled by UN forces. He said there were no immediate reports of casualties, but that UN peacekeepers were trying to negotiate a new ceasefire.
Troops loyal to Nkunda, a commander in the former rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, advanced on Bukavu after fighting broke out last week between rival factions of the Congolese army.
That violence erupted on Wednesday and pitted troops loyal to Brigadier General Mbuza Mabe, the commander of the army in South Kivu, against Banyamulenge fighters loyal to Colonel Jules Mutebutsi. At least 27 people were killed and another 81 wounded in three days of clashes.
Banyamulenge residents fled Bukavu and others took shelter at UN compounds during the fighting after several were killed and detained by government troops.
”We were fighting because no one wanted to stop the genocide” of the Banyamulenge, Nkunda said.
Nkunda said he ordered the earlier ceasefire after talks with Vice-President Azarias Ruberwa, a former rebel leader and a Banyamulenge, who ”pleaded with us to observe a ceasefire and let him come to Bukavu to assess the situation”.
But the ceasefire was conditional and Mabe decided to attack instead, security officials said on condition of anonymity.
The conditions included the recovery of Banyamulenge killed during the clashes, the return of those forced to flee their homes and the release of those detained by the government, Nkunda said.
”There should also be new security arrangements in Bukavu that would ensure that every one can live in the city in peace,” Nkunda said.
Mutebutsi’s gun men were staying in buildings belonging to their commanders in Bukavu on Tuesday, UN officials said.
Bukavu itself was calm and hundreds of Mayi-Mayi tribal fighters walked into the city from neighbouring towns to reinforce government troops, said Didas Namujimbo, spokesperson for the provincial governor.
The war in the DRC ended last June when the rebels and the government set up a transitional government in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital. But the eastern and northeastern DRC have remained volatile.
”What happens after this will determine whether we continue fighting or not,” Nkunda said. ”If they fail to solve this problem, I will solve it myself.” — Sapa-AP