Kinshasa: Fighting erupted between the Congolese army and rebels in the troubled east of the country for a third straight day on Wednesday, further rattling an uneasy peace as UN chief Ban Ki-moon began a visit to the country.
Residents of nearby refugee camps have been fleeing in their hundreds since Monday when fresh clashes broke out between M23 rebels and government troops near the strategic eastern city of Goma, the first fighting since December.
Ban, meanwhile, arrived in the capital Kinshasa as part of a tour which should also take him to Goma, the hub of the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo that is often the flashpoint for conflict in the region.
He is accompanied by the World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, UN peacekeeping force chief Herve Ladsous and Mary Robinson, the UN special envoy for the Great Lakes region.
The DR Congo government says 19 people were killed in fighting near Goma on Monday.
M23 rebels, who had briefly seized Goma in November despite the presence of UN peacekeepers, said they had come under attack from government forces from early Wednesday morning.
“The FARDC (Congolese army) has been attacking us since 6am with mortars, tanks and rocket launchers in the Mutaho area,” M23 military spokesman Vianney Kazarama said.
Colonel Mustapha Mamadou, in charge of army operations in the area, confirmed that fighting had erupted for the third straight day.
The latest unrest flared barely a week after the first troops from a new UN intervention brigade arrived in the country with a strong mandate to attack rebel groups.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende had told journalists that Monday’s clashes had left 15 rebels and four soldiers dead.
