BUJUMBURA, Dec 23 (Reuters) - The main rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Monday it had recaptured the port of Uvira after three days of fighting with government-allied militias which could undermine a peace deal. The renewed fighting in the strategic lakeside town, which has switched hands several times in recent months, threatens to erode the peace deal to end the country's four-year-old war signed by rebels and the government last week in South Africa. The secretary-general of the Rwandan-backed rebel Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), Azarias Ruberwa, said most of the fighting took place at Baraka town, some 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Uvira, and that many people were killed. The port of Uvira is of strategic importance for the transportation of food, ammunition and petroleum across Lake Tanganyika and into the interior provinces. Its proximity to Rwanda and Burundi also makes it key. "The Mai Mai (militias) intended to occupy Uvira region until Christmas day but we drove them back and Uvira is now secured," Ruberwa said from RCD headquarters in Goma. "The Mai Mai lost many fighters, we even captured an Antonov on Sunday," he told Reuters in Burundi. Ruberwa said the captured Antonov plane was carrying ammunition and six white men who fled towards Lake Tanganyika. The Mai Mai are traditional warriors loosely allied to the Kinshasa government who use spears, bows and arrows as well as guns and are spread throughout the lawless jungles of eastern Congo. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in Burundi said it had registered 1,000 Congolese refugees fleeing the fighting. "About 1,000 Congolese refugees have entered into Burundi since the weekend. They are fleeing new fighting in Uvira," said Ntwari Bernard, a UNHCR communications official at the Burundi office. The RCD said the Mai Mai were receiving help from a Burundian rebel group and Rwandan Interahamwe militiamen, who Rwanda says were responsible for the 1994 genocide there and have been hiding in Congo ever since. A spokesman for the Mai Mai said the RCD had started the fighting, which was still going on. "RCD troops, helped by Rwandan soldiers, attacked our positions in the hills near Uvira, and the Mai Mai replied to the attacks," Manace Bita said. "Fighting is continuing even now at Uvira. The situation is not good." Congo's war exploded in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda invaded to support rebel movements fighting the Kinshasa government. The conflict has killed an estimated two million people, and numerous foreign armies were sucked into the conflict. Most foreign troops have now withdrawn, but violence has continued between local militias. The agreement signed in Pretoria was aimed at leading Congo through a peaceful transition to its first democratic elections since 1960.
