/ 16 November 2008

UN envoy meets DRC rebel amid fresh fighting

A United Nations envoy met Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda for talks to seek peace in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday as fresh fighting flared in North Kivu province.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to try to end the conflict in east DRC, met Nkunda at Jomba not far from the borders with Rwanda and Uganda.

Earlier, a UN official and a witness reported heavy exchanges of artillery, rocket and small arms fire near the village of Ndeko, about 110km north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Obasanjo, who held talks on Saturday with Congolese President Joseph Kabila, is seeking to prevent the fighting in North Kivu from escalating into a repeat of a wider 1998 to 2003 DRC war that sucked in neighbouring states.

Weeks of combat between Nkunda’s rebels and government troops and their militia allies have displaced around a quarter of a million civilians, creating what aid agencies call a ”catastrophic” humanitarian situation in east DRC.

Escorted by Indian peacekeepers, Obasanjo flew in by helicopter to Jomba, in the foothills of the Virunga mountains, where he greeted Nkunda with a hug.

He also inspected a guard of honour of Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebels.

”It would be better for them to be part of a national army rather than for them to be called rebels. That is what we are here to try and do,” he said.

A witness on the road just south of Ndeko, which is 60km north-west of where Obasanjo met Nkunda, told Reuters: ”There is a lot of fighting going on. They are using heavy weapons, rockets and artillery, as well as small arms.

The UN peacekeeping mission also confirmed the clashes.

”We have had a flash report of heavy fighting since seven this morning (5am GMT) at Ndeko. We have sent a patrol out to see what is going on,” said spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich.

Neither the UN nor the witness could confirm who was involved in Sunday’s fighting but Nkunda’s fighters have previously clashed with both government soldiers and Rwandan Hutu rebels, known as the FDLR, in the area.

Nkunda accuses Kabila of arming and using the FDLR to fight alongside his weak and chaotic army units. The Congolese president, meanwhile, accuses neighbouring Rwanda of supporting Nkunda’s four year rebellion.

Nkunda initially took up arms saying he was fighting to defend fellow Tutsis in DRC from attack by the FDLR but, after marching to the gates of Goma last month, he is now calling for direct negotiations with the president. – Reuters