SA warns DRC rebels 'hands off Goma'
2013-08-30 15:25
Pretoria - South Africa has warned rebels fighting in the Democratic
Republic of Congo not to try and retake the battleground city of Goma on
Friday after a week of escalating violence.
South Africa is part of the UN peace enforcement military task force to the
country's troubled eastern region bordering on Rwanda.
Goma, a mining hub and town of a million people, was briefly held by M23
rebels earlier in the year and still remains under threat.
"We're trying to send a message to the M23, this time around you're not
going to see Goma," said Lieutenant General Derrick Mgwebi, South Africa
National Defence Force Chief of Joint Operations.
"Don't venture in ideas of taking over again."
South African soldiers are part of a UN intervention brigade, a 3 000-strong
contingent with an unprecedented offensive mandate to fight entrenched armed
movements, marking a strategic change of tack from traditionally peaceful UN
missions.
"This is the first time that a UN peacekeeping force has had as its sole
mandate the seeking out and neutralising of rebel groups," said Darren
Olivier, a senior correspondent at the African Defence Review, an
organisation focused on African security.
"While UN peacekeeping missions in the past have on occasion directly
engaged rebel forces, they have done so as part of mandates to defend
themselves or population centres only," he said.
Indiscriminate shelling
Fresh fighting flared in the resource-rich eastern DR Congo Thursday, with
government forces backed by UN troops shelling rebels near Goma and tensions
spilling over into neighbouring Rwanda.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday accused M23 rebels of
"indiscriminate shelling" inside the DRC and into Rwanda, where authorities
said a woman was killed in artillery fire on Thursday.
"He also calls on all member states with influence in the region to assist
in easing tensions," in a statement released by his spokesman Martin
Nesirky.
South African snipers have killed at least six M23 rebels in recent days as
Ukranian Mi-24P helicopters pounded M23 positions from the air.
Olivier said the United Nations has a significant military edge over their
M23 adversaries.
"The biggest advantages they have at the moment are its artillery batteries,
mortar teams, special forces commandos and the two Mi-24P attack helicopters
providing air support," he said.
This allows the UN forces to "provide effective assistance without needing
to engage its infantry battalions directly".
The M23 rebel movement is a predominantly ethnic Tutsi force that deserted
from the army last year and has been battling the regular army.
This week the UN force has seen intensified fighting as it attempts to keep
rebels from Goma. The fighting took place in Kibati, an area in the northern
outskirts of Goma.
Escalating violence
"Bombs were landing in the airport and in the town," they were "falling left
and right" of the South African Munigi base, according to notes distributed
by the South African military.
M23 mortars killed a Tanzanian United Nations peacekeeper and injured ten
others on Wednesday, according Mgwebi.
"Three of our soldiers have been injured in the conflict since the weekend,
largely from shrapnel wounds. None have been seriously wounded," said
President Jacob Zuma on Thursday.
South Africa is contributing 1 345 troops to the UN mission, representing
approximately half of the intervention brigade.
The escalating violence is a sensitive issue in South Africa, after 15 of
the country's soldiers were killed in the Central African Republic in March,
amid criticism that the troops were unprepared and did not have adequate
equipment.
But Mgwebi said the troops deployed to date have received training and are
protected. "They've got something on the ground and fire support is being
provided as we speak," he said.
AFP
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"
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