Associated Press
SALEH MWANAMILONGO and JASON STRAZIUSO 4 hours ago PoliticsUnited
NationsRwandaGoma
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) Fighting from the war in eastern Congo that pits U.N.
and Congolese forces against rebels spilled over into Rwanda on Thursday
when 10 shells landed in a Rwandan border town and a nearby village, killing
at least one person, authorities said.
Rwanda, which the U.N. accuses of backing the rebels in the neighboring
nation of Congo, blamed the Congolese military for the shelling of its
territory, saying it was done with the intention of dragging them into the
conflict.
But in New York, the United Nations said the U.N. force "can confirm firing
incidents into Rwandan territory originated from M23 positions" from Aug.
22-29, and stressed that "it has not witnessed any Congolese Armed Forces
firing into Rwandan territory during this period."
Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said a projectile fired by
Congolese forces at 9:45 a.m. killed a woman and seriously injured her
2-month old baby in a market in Rubavu town, located 3 kilometers (2 miles)
from the Congolese border.
"We have remained restrained for as long as we can but this provocation can
no longer be tolerated. We have the capacity to determine who fired at us
and will not hesitate to defend our territory. Rwanda has a responsibility
to protect its population," Mushikiwabo said. She said a second projectile
landed at 11:20 a.m. in Rubavu, injuring one person, and that eight landed
at nearby Busasamana village 10 minutes later.
Goma, a city of 1 million located on the Rwandan border, briefly fell to the
M23 rebels last year, whose ranks are swollen with undercover Rwandan
soldiers, according to repeated reports by the United Nations Group of
Experts. The soldiers from Rwanda join the M23 in small groups, hiking
across footpaths into Congo. Rwanda has also supplied them with arms and
sophisticated equipment, including night vision goggles, the report said.
Meanwhile, combat continued in eastern Congo on Thursday, and Congolese
Minister of Information Lambert Mende confirmed that two shells had landed
in two separate neighborhoods in the provincial capital of Goma overnight,
killing one person and wounding eight.
That brings to 13 the number of people killed in Goma by shelling from rebel
positions north of the city in just over a week, ever since the Congolese
army backed by United Nations troops went on the offensive against the M23
rebels.
Paluku Kavunga, a resident of Goma, said he had seen the latest victim of
the shelling: "I saw the body torn into pieces of a boy who was 16 years old
and who was killed last night," he said. "This morning I heard another two
detonations not far from Goma and I also saw four helicopters from the
United Nations who were flying over the city of Goma."
The fighting in recent days has been among the most intense in the past
year, and comes after the United Nations Security Council in March
authorized the creation of a special intervention brigade which, unlike the
other 17,000 peacekeepers stationed in this vast nation, have a mandate
allowing them to go on the offensive against the M23 rebel group. The
brigade, made up of soldiers from Tanzania and South Africa, was created in
the wake of the criticism following the fall of Goma to the rebels last
year.
Reached by telephone, M23 President Bertrand Bisimwa said that the fighting
had lasted until 11 p.m. on Wednesday, and resumed at 4 a.m. Thursday. He
said the U.N. troops are mixed in with the Congolese soldiers.
"The Congolese and the U.N. attacked us with their infantry, with their
combat tanks and with their heavy weapons," he said. "They are mixed in
together. On the front line you can see them together. We especially see the
U.N. soldiers in the tanks."
Pikkie Greeff, the national secretary of the South African National Defense
Union, a military union which represents some of the soldiers fighting in
Congo, said that South African Special Forces snipers have been "taking out"
rebels manning machine gun posts, barriers and other positions. He also said
the South African and Tanzanian troops are launching attacks from the air
and hitting the rebels with artillery shells. As the fight intensifies "the
possibilities of casualties are very high ... and we see the possibility
that soldiers might die in combat," he said.
Congo, a nation the size of Western Europe, has been in a perpetual state of
crisis for almost two decades. Even before the creation of the M23 in 2012,
its forest-covered hills were crawling with other rebel groups, ethnic
militias and renegade units of the regular army. The latest flare-up is
causing people to flee from the very refugee camps that became their
temporary homes in previous conflicts.
"Things are really bad when people are being forced to run away from
displacement camps," said Frances Charles, the Goma-based advocacy director
for international aid group World Vision, who was reached by telephone. "The
DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) level of emergency is so much worse than
anywhere else. What we now take as 'normal' would be considered a
catastrophe anywhere else. For us a good day is, for another country, the
biggest catastrophe they have ever seen."
___
Jason Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Associated Press writers
Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, Rodney Muhumuza in Johannesburg and
Peter James Spielmann in New York also contributed to this report.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
[email protected]
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
