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DRC: 4 dead, several wounded as rebels, gov’t troops clash in eastern Congo
Sat. August 30, 2008 02:31 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) At least four people were killed and several wounded on Thursday as rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the army fought one of their fiercest battles in eastern Congo in 2008.
According to UN-funded Radio Okapi, the feuding sides exchanged machine-gun and mortar fire all day outside a national park that is home to some of the world's last mountain gorillas. Radio Okapi said at least one of the dead was an army soldier.
According to the UN mission in DRC, 18 rebels were injured in the clashes.
Meanwhile, UN spokesperson Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said despite a January ceasefire deal, rebels led by Laurent Nkunda fought army units in the village of Matebe, as well as Gasiza and Kalomba, on the outskirts of Virunga National Park.
"Almost the entire population of the area has fled," Dietrich said, adding that army forces had put attack helicopters into the skies and were reinforcing their positions.
Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, DRC army spokesperson confirmed the army was organising a counteroffensive. He blamed rebels for starting the latest conflict.
Nkunda's fighters have occupied the southern sector of Virunga National Park for about 12 months, keeping rangers from patrolling the area.
Emmanuel de Merode, who directs Virunga National Park for the Congolese Wildlife Authority, said the "latest escalation of the conflict undermines our efforts to resume our work in the gorilla sector."
"It is almost one year to the day since this conflict started, but we are as determined as ever to get back in," Merode said, adding that mortar and grenade explosions have boomed around the park since before dawn.
"It is critical that we know the status of the mountain gorillas."
Though sporadic gunfights have broken out in North Kivu province in 2008, much of the area has been calm since a January peace deal ended a wave of major skirmishes in the same region late in 2007.
"The fighting has been tied for weeks to the desire to control certain areas of land by one party or another," Dietrich said.
Nkunda's rebels "are trying to expand their zone of influence" and the army is trying to stop them, he said.
Nkunda's fighters, believed to have close ties to neighbouring Rwanda, first rose up against the government after the broader war ended in 2002. He claims they fight to protect minority Tutsis from Hutus and other groups.
Nkunda's rebels have been accused by wildlife officials of attacking gorillas in the past, but since 2007 they have taken tourists and some journalists on unauthorised visits to the rare animals.
Virunga National Park is located in a lawless swath of eastern Congo that the country's government has struggled to bring under control for years.-Cape Times
News Category: Africa
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