28 000 flee fresh unrest in DRC

Kinshasa – More than 28 000 displaced people yesterday fled their camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile Nord-Kivu region after insurgent troops attacked army positions nearby, said a United Nations official.

Jens Hesemann, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “Our assessment is that three-fourths of the population of the camps at Mugunga I, Mugunga II and Lac Vert which house around 38 000 people, have fled.” He said: “Of these estimated 28 500 people, some have fled towards Goma”, the capital of Nord-Kivu, and towards another camp.The Congolese army said its soldiers had been attacked on Tuesday by forces loyal to a cashiered general, Laurent Nkunda, in the restive province.Major Joseph Omari, who heads a battalion charged with ensuring the security of the towns of Sake and Mugunga, said: “We were attacked early today at Njulo by insurgent soldiers.”Nord-Kivu in eastern DRC had been the site of confrontations between the Congolese army and insurgents backing Nkunda in recent months.According to the UN, at least 375 000 Congolese had been forced to leave their homes in Nord-Kivu since December due to continued fighting between the government forces, renegade troops and rebels.Since the end of August, the regular army had deployed about 20 000 troops there to fight Nkunda’s men or persuade them to surrender and demobilise with a chance to join a national military undergoing reforms after successive civil and rebel wars ended in 2003.Hundreds of thousands of villagers had been displaced in Nord-Kivu by fighting not only between the army and Nkunda, who claimed to be protecting the minority Congolese Tutsi population, but also involving the Mai-Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels from the neighbouring country who were hostile to Nkunda.Nampa-AFPHe said: “Of these estimated 28 500 people, some have fled towards Goma”, the capital of Nord-Kivu, and towards another camp.The Congolese army said its soldiers had been attacked on Tuesday by forces loyal to a cashiered general, Laurent Nkunda, in the restive province.Major Joseph Omari, who heads a battalion charged with ensuring the security of the towns of Sake and Mugunga, said: “We were attacked early today at Njulo by insurgent soldiers.”Nord-Kivu in eastern DRC had been the site of confrontations between the Congolese army and insurgents backing Nkunda in recent months.According to the UN, at least 375 000 Congolese had been forced to leave their homes in Nord-Kivu since December due to continued fighting between the government forces, renegade troops and rebels.Since the end of August, the regular army had deployed about 20 000 troops there to fight Nkunda’s men or persuade them to surrender and demobilise with a chance to join a national military undergoing reforms after successive civil and rebel wars ended in 2003.Hundreds of thousands of villagers had been displaced in Nord-Kivu by fighting not only between the army and Nkunda, who claimed to be protecting the minority Congolese Tutsi population, but also involving the Mai-Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels from the neighbouring country who were hostile to Nkunda.Nampa-AFP