Rebel forces withdrew from an army base in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after having taken it in fierce fighting, the United Nations mission in the troubled country said on Friday as the president called for a mass offensive against the rebels.
Forces loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda took the Rumangabo base, about 50km north of the provincial capital of Goma, on Thursday after an intense battle.
”At the request of Monuc, the armed elements of the National Congress for the Defence of the People [CNDP] have withdrawn from the Rumangabo military camp,” the UN mission (Monuc) said.
Over the past six weeks, the rebel forces stepped up their campaign against government forces in Nord-Kivu province.
CNDP spokesperson Bertrand Bisimwa said the rebels’ withdrawal was made at the request of UN special envoy Alan Doss.
President Joseph Kabila made a nationwide television appeal late on Thursday for a renewed campaign against Nkunda, who claims to be protecting members of his Tutsi ethnic group in the region.
”Over and above any political divide, we must mobilise as one behind our armed forces and our elected representatives to preserve peace and the unity and [territorial] integrity of the country,” said Kabila.
He praised troops who, ”despite their youth and the imponderables of an unconventional war, have consistently resisted the enemy attacks with courage”.
The head of the African Union commission, Jean Ping, arrived in Kinshasa on Friday as part of what the pan-African body said were ”efforts to restore peace and security in the eastern DRC and to promote stability in the region”.
Ping would be in the DRC until October 12, it said, to discuss with officials there ”developments in the situation and the contribution the AU can make to facilitate the implementation of various agreements”.
Renewed fighting broke out August 28 with government troops and Nkunda’s CNDP violating a ceasefire reached under the Goma peace accord in January.
In a recent BBC interview, Nkunda called on all Congolese to ”stand up” to the national government and said his rebel group would ”fight until the people are liberated”.
Kabila said that while ”we thought a page had turned on this country’s tumultuous history with the establishing of new institutions, the sound of boots is once again being heard in the east, with echoes in Ituri [a northern province] where brothers’ blood is again being spilled”.
He accused Nkunda of seeking ”not to protect his ethnic community as he has always claimed but to divide the country to bring about the expansionism of a neighbouring territory”.
DRC officials this week alleged that Rwandan troops had aided Nkunda’s forces to capture Rumangabo, and accused Kigali of planning to attack the provincial capital of Goma.
Rwandan officials denied the charges.
Doss on Friday urged the Security Council to provide extra troops for his peacekeeping mission to cope with an upsurge in rebel attacks. He told reporters he had requested ”a surge capacity” involving troops and air assets.
A five-year conflict pitting government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda, ended in 2003 after claiming more than three million lives. — Sapa-AFP