About 300 000 civilians have fled their homes in the area of Kalehe in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where a rebel general is holding out against government troops, relief workers have reported in Kinshasa.
Clashes have occurred around Kalehe, about 60km from the key town of Bukavu, which rebel General Laurent Nkunda and another insurgent officer seized for a week last month, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Monuc, the United Nations mission to the massive Central African state torn by more than four years of civil war until last year, said it is concerned about ongoing hostilities in the remote region.
”Tension persists around Kalehe where sporadic shooting has been reported between DRC armed forces units and soldiers apparently under General Laurent Nkunda,” said Monuc spokesperson Abou Thiam.
Relief workers said about 300 000 civilians have had to flee their homes in the area of Kalehe.
The DRC civil war ended with a peace accord in 2002 that was gradually and laboriously supplemented by further agreements and implemented last year. But sporadic violence still erupts from time to time, especially in the east of this vast land rich in mineral wealth but devastated by war.
Nkunda withdrew his force of about 4 000 rebellious government troops from Bukavu and holed up in the area of Minova.
Military sources said army units are trying to dislodge Nkunda from Minova, whose population has been living in fear since the arrival of the rebels.
”Monuc is organising military patrols in the affected area but has not yet reported direct clashes between the two sides, and is trying to prevent the situation worsening,” the UN spokesperson told journalists in Kinshasa.
Neighbouring Rwanda has denied any support for the uprising last month by mutinous troops , in the wake of a damning new UN report.
The report accuses Rwanda of having — in violation of an arms embargo imposed on the eastern DRC in 2003 — helped recruit fighters for the uprising in Bukavu.
The panel of experts who wrote the report said that while Rwanda had legitimate security concerns in the eastern DRC, it continues to play a destabilising role there.
Bukavu, the capital of Sud-Kivu province, which lies on the Rwandan border, was captured for a week in early June by a group of dissident DRC soldiers led by Colonel Jules Mutebusi and General Laurent Nkunda.
The Kinshasa government accused Kigali of having supported the two officers, a claim that the Rwandan government has repeatedly denied, even though it has consistently refused to condemn the uprising. — Sapa-AFP