UPDATED ON:
Thursday, October 09, 2008
19:31 Mecca time, 16:31 GMT
 
News Africa
Rwanda troops 'enter DR Congo'
Nkunda's Tutsi fighters have conducted several
attacks on government forces [AFP]

The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused its neighbour Rwanda of sending troops across the border in support of a Congolese rebel leader.

Dozens of people were injured in fighting near Goma, the eastern provincial capital of eastern Nord-Kivu, but Rwanda denied involvement saying the accusations from Kinshasa were "ridiculous".

Julien Mpaluku, the provincial governor of the North Kivu district, said on Thursday that Rwandan soldiers crossed into Congo three days ago and headed for the frontier villages of Tshanzu and Bunagana.

He said Rwandan troops were fighting in Rumangabo, a small village north of the regional capital, Goma.

Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi, the Congolese foreign minister, repeated the charge to the Reuters news agency.

Village attacked

"The Rwandans are indeed there. They now want to take Goma," Nyamwisi was reported as saying.

The accusations follow a series of attacks on Congolese troops by Tutsi fighters led by Laurent Nkunda, a renegade army general, in the border province of North Kivu.

Rwanda's mainly Tutsi government is said to be supportive of Nkunda.

Congolese army tanks fired into the hills at fighters, who took control of a military base in the village of Rumangabo, about 40km north of Goma, on Wednesday.

The fighting forced wildlife rangers to evacuate their headquarters in the southern sector of Virunga National Park, home to some of the last remaining mountain gorillas on earth, Samantha Newport, a park spokewoman, said.

Rwandan rejection

The UN, which has its biggest international peacekeeping force deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, urged both sides to respect and support existing peace processes that have sought to end the fighting in Congo's east.

Asked about the Congolese allegations, Michel Bonnardeaux, a spokesman for the UN Congo mission (Monuc), said: "We are aware of collusion allegations from both sides and that's why we insist on bringing the parties back to the table to repair trust and restore confidence in the peace process."

Rejecting the Congolese allegations, Richard Sezibera, Rwanda's ambassador to the Congolese Great Lakes region, said: "There are UN Monuc troops in those areas. If Rwandan troops were there, would not the whole world know by now?"

Rwanda has invaded Congo in the past, including a major invasion in a 1998-2003 war that sucked in neighbouring states.

 Source: Agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 6
 
Junior Badila
Zaire (former)
14/10/2008
DRCongo WAR
The war between DRCongo and Rwanda has shown that nobody on earth care about the Congolese. According to the UN, nearly 4 millions congolese has died since 1998 because of atrocities relating to the violence on Eastern of DRCongo. Everyone on earth knows that Rwanda army fight inside DRcongo to support the Tutsi ethnic wich live in Congo. The UN and the rest of the world have to condemn Kagame, and urge the Rwanda army to pull out from DRCongo.

George Washington
Afghanistan
15/10/2008
Rwandan troops inside DR Congo
And the DR Congo govt are all saints? Every regime in that region is corrupt and twisted, none of them care about their own people. Tribal conflicts go back to the dawn of mankind, who can say which side is "right" when the whole situation is just wrong to begin with. You're from Zaire, odds are you either belong to a tribe/ethnic group that hates Tutsis or you buy into the propaganda. Both scream ignorance.

Trace
Canada
18/10/2008
Rwanda troops
I am with GW on this one and I wish there was something that we could do to help but until Sub Saharan Africa wants to help itself there is nothing we can do. We could transform the borders of the entire continent along tribal lines but all that would change is thet there would be war instead of civil war.

Gustavus Vassa
Nepal
21/10/2008
Rwandan Troups
GW and Trace: there is a lot "we" could do. Stop supplying weapons and supporting corrupt regimes, for a start. Stop buying and helping to smuggle out vast amounts of resources (gold, diamonds, cobalt, coltan, timber, ...) from DR Congo. Stop financial and military aid to dictators. Stop the disinformation about "tribal warfare". Everyone knows the ethnic conflicts in Rwanda, DR Congo and elsewhere were to a large extent created or exacerbated by colonialism.

Gustavus Vassa
Nepal
21/10/2008
Rwandan Troups
Please have a look at: a) Where do the weapons come from? b) How are natural resources transferred to the west? c) How are governments selected by western powers. (Mobutu, for example.) d) What happens when a leader who could effect some true positive reform is democratically elected. (Lumumba, for example.) Then, please don't say that "we" can not do anything, or that Africans are not trying to help themselves.

Ben
Canada
25/10/2008
leadership
The problem in my country is leadership we need a leader who will care about congoless people. Up now there is strong leadership in the congo.

 
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