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UN moves to halt rebel advance in DRC
AFP - 2 hours 18 minutes ago
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (AFP) - - UN peacekeepers used attack helicopters for a second successive day on Wednesday to try to halt a seemingly relentless rebel advance in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The UN's largest peacekeeping mission, MONUC, stepped up direct intervention in the conflict as tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting flocked to camps near the regional capital Goma, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed for an end to the fighting.
Rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda traded heavy weapons fire with government forces in a new upsurge in fighting early Wednesday as they geared for an assault on Goma.
The clashes centred on Kibumba around 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Goma, where the UN aircraft fired on rebel positions, stalling their advance on the regional capital, and forcing them to retreat to higher ground.
A top aide to Nkunda told AFP the rebels would take Goma, whose population has been swelled by refugees from the fighting, within three days, despite having their progress slowed by the UN attack.
"We were positioned just 15 kilometres from town, but MONUC engaged us with their helicopter gunships," said Amani Babu, a senior officer in Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
"We think in two or three days we will be able to take the town of Goma," Babu told AFP by phone from CNDP headquarters in the Masisi region.
After MONUC joined the fight Wednesday, the rebels "withdrew a little and retreated to high positions near Kibumba," Babu added.
Government forces are blocking roads to Goma from the north, but had pulled out in disarray from a second flashpoint further north.
The UN was the only force protecting the key administrative town of Rutshuru, after government forces fled the fighting there, the UN's head of military operations Colonel Samba Tall told AFP.
"The FARDC (DRC government army) abandoned their positions Tuesday," Tall said, adding that "MONUC is protecting and will remain in protection of the population."
A rebel spokesman told AFP on Tuesday his forces were only four kilometres from Rutshuru.
Meanwhile, around 30,000 "exhausted and traumatised" displaced people were being fed by the UN refugee agency at a makeshift camp at Kibati, 10 kilometres north of Goma.
"The arrivals are reported to be exhausted and traumatised," with many having walked for several days carrying all their possessions after being close to the fighting, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva.
Redmond said the UNHCR, along with UNICEF and the World Food Programme, is delivering emergency food and non-food aid and erecting tents to improve conditions in the camp, the population of which now stands at 45,000.
The government in Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of actively supporting Nkunda. However, Rwanda said Wednesday that the fighting was an internal DRC affair for which it bore no responsbility and rejected the idea of a summit on the issue.
The rebels were "backed by Rwandan tanks which are pounding our positions from border hill positions," said a Congolese government commander on condition of anonymity.
Rwanda said the DRC sent Tuesday a delegation led by Foreign Minister Alexis Tambe Mwamba to discuss the conflict in the east of the country and to suggest a meeting between DRC President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.
Speaking on a visit to the Philippines, Ban urged an immediate end to the violence.
"First and foremost, the fighting must be stopped," Ban told reporters.
"And I am deeply concerned about the civilian casualties as well as increasing number of internally displaced persons."
Ban said he had dispatched two of his senior aides to talk to all parties to the conflict "to reconcile."
"Unfortunately, the situation in Goma is worrisome. There were some attacks even against the United Nations mission by civilian people," he said.
The head of UN peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, briefed the UN's Security Council on Tuesday night about the deteriorating situation in the Goma region and said his request for additional forces for MONUC had "been heard clearly by all member states."
Although the 17,000 MONUC force is the biggest in UN history, less than 6,000 troops have been deployed against Nkunda's irregular forces.
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.
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