Rebels, army engage in fresh clashes in DR Congo

Goma, DR Congo: Rebels from the M23 movement and the army fought on Monday just north of Goma, a regional capital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that the rebels had occupied briefly in November, both sides said.

An M23 spokesman, Amani Kabasha, said the clashes were taking place 12 kilometres north of Goma. Colonel Olivier Hamuli, spokesman for the DRC’s armed forces, confirmed the fighting was taking place, without saying if there were casualties.

Hamuli said the rebel movement, which was formed by army mutineers in North Kivu province in April last year, had threatened the Congolese forces for a week.

The clashes are the first to have occurred since the rebel movement withdrew from the North Kivu provincial capital of Goma in December, after occupying the city of a million people for 10 days.

An interim spokesman for the UN stabilisation mission in the DRC, Monusco, said “it is the Mutaho zone” that was attacked “this morning from 4am [0200 GMT] by M23”, which was targeting the Congolese army (FARDC).

“About 15 shots were heard, then there was heavier gunfire until 6.45am. Clashes were later heard in the Kibati highlands,” Monusco’s Major Vincent Tourny told AFP, adding that the report had yet to be confirmed.

Intermittent shooting

FARDC troops were initially driven back, but managed to recover their positions, and by 10am, shooting became “intermittent” in the area, Tourny said.

The fighting came as the first troops due to be part of a new UN intervention brigade arrived this month for their mission to take on rebel groups. This force has a tougher offensive mandate than Monusco, whose role is promoting good governance, peacekeeping and protecting civilians.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to visit the DRC on Wednesday as part of a tour that will take him to Goma as well as to Kigali and Entebbe. The Kinshasa government and the UN both accuse Rwanda and Uganda of backing M23, an allegation the two neighbouring countries deny.

M23, named for a peace deal with the DRC government signed on March 23, 2009, emerged out of an ethnic Tutsi mutiny by former rebels integrated into the army, on the grounds that the Kinshasa government had failed to abide by terms of the pact.

The rebels seized Goma in November but withdrew shortly after following promises of dialogue with Kinshasa. Since pulling out, the rebels have held positions a few kilometres from the city.

Composition of force

The new UN force will include soldiers from Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. It is being constituted because of persistent activity by rebels and various armed militias in eastern DRC, but a western military source said that the force will not be fully operational for several weeks.

The way for the force was opened when 11 African leaders signed an agreement in February to try to bring peace to the DRC by encouraging institutional reform and measures to strengthen the government and regional cooperation.

The pact also urged nations in the central African Great Lakes region to avoid interference in each other’s affairs. Rwanda and Uganda were signatories.