Government troops have regained control of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Sake, although clashes with rebel forces continued around the municipality for the fourth straight day, a United Nations official said on Tuesday.
”The integrated brigade [of the regular army] has retaken control of Sake” and three surrounding hills, UN mission (Monuc) spokesperson Ajay Dalal told Agence France-Presse.
The town’s recapture comes less than 48 hours after dissident 81st and 83rd army brigades seized much of Sake in heavy fighting Sunday that also targeted UN soldiers. The following day, UN troops gained control of the town and the DRC army moved in afterwards.
Monuc is a peacekeeping mission of about 17 600 troops deployed across the vast Central African country since before the end of a regional war in 2003. It has a mandate to counterattack when under fire, as happened in Sake.
Led by General Laurent Nkunda, the rebel brigades are opposed to armed forces reforms. The recent spate of fighting has killed at least eight people, according to the latest casualty estimates of Sunday, and displaced at least 15 000 people, humanitarian officials say.
While fighting continued in hills several kilometers away, Sake was virtually deserted Tuesday morning. Only a few residents braved streets patrolled by UN forces. No bodies could be detected, and the UN announced no new casualties.
The battle apparently started after a police officer shot dead an ethnic Tutsi during a search, prompting a raid by Nkunda, who in September warned he will defend his ”Tutsi brothers” if threatened.
Members of the renegade divisions, based in the Masisi mountains north of Sake, want no part of reforms to the army as the country strives to recover from the devastating war of 1998-2003.
Nkunda is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity in 2004 when his men briefly took control of Bukavu, the chief town in Sud-Kivu Province further to the south.
Monuc sent a half-battalion — at least 700 men — to reinforce its presence in Sake at the weekend, while tension rose in the capital Kinshasa more than 1 000km to the west ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on the outcome of the DRC’s first free elections in 41 years.
On Monday, President Joseph Kabila was declared the official winner in the run off presidential vote, after the court rejected a legal challenge by rival Jean-Pierre Bemba.
There appears to be no link, however, between these political developments and the violence in the east, where Monuc troops have in post-war years also undertaken military operations to disarm the militias of rival warlords active in several areas. – AFP
