Rwanda has sent thousands of troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent days, a Western diplomat in Kinshasa said on Monday, but United Nations officials said they had found no evidence of such an incursion.
The Western diplomat, speaking on condition he not be identified, said that Rwandan troops have been seen crossing into the DRC since Friday.
He said there was no doubt about the incursion, but added there had been no clashes with DRC forces.
Jacqueline Chenard, a spokeswoman for UN forces in eastern DRC, said UN helicopter missions and other patrols had found no evidence of any Rwandan presence.
”To our knowledge, there’s no Rwandan presence,” Chenard said in Goma, the largest city of in the eastern DRC, near the Rwandan border. It’s a rumor.”
Rwanda last week warned it might act soon act to force disarmament of Rwandan Hutu rebels sheltering across the border in eastern DRC. Rwanda stated that the the UN-led disarmament program there was not effective.
Reached by telephone, a ranger at Virunga National Park bordering Rwanda and DRC said he had seen about 400 armed Rwandan troops cross into the park from Rwanda on Sunday. He spoke on condition he not be identified.
The troops were in a sports-vehicle and on foot, and had sophisticated weapons, the ranger said. He added that the alleged Rwandans were headed north, to remote volcanic mountains north of Goma.
In Goma, local chiefs said their people had also reported seeing Rwanda troops in isolated hills since Friday. – Sapa-AP