DR CONGO'S CEASEFIRE 'ABANDONED' !
Gen Nkunda says his forces will "actively defend" themselves. The renegade general fighting government forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo says the ceasefire is broken and "abandoned".
Gen Laurent Nkunda's force resumed fighting in late September, saying it was in response to government attacks.
Gen Nkunda told the BBC that UN peacekeepers in DR Congo have provided air support for government forces.
The fighting has forced thousands of refugees to flee to UNHCR camps near the eastern city of Goma.
They are adding to a total of 300,000 people displaced from the area so far this year, according to the UNHCR.
The general said the government was providing artillery support to local militia (known as the Mai Mai) and former Hutu members of the Rwandan army (the FDLR) who were attacking his forces.
Gen Nkunda said he had now ordered his forces actively to defend themselves.
He has repeatedly accused the Congolese army of working with the Mai Mai and FDLR to attack Congolese Tutsis, known as Banyamulenge, in his home province of North Kivu.
The general justifies his insurrection as being in "self-defence" of the Banyamulenge.
"We have told ourselves we will no longer stand with our arms crossed while people are dying. We must react. We are soldiers," he told Reuters news agency by telephone.
"Monuc thinks there is a ceasefire, but we've abandoned it."
In Kinshasa, the government has given the rebel general an ultimatum of 15 October to cease hostilities and integrate his forces into the army or face tough action.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Gen Laurent Nkunda's force resumed fighting in late September, saying it was in response to government attacks.
Gen Nkunda told the BBC that UN peacekeepers in DR Congo have provided air support for government forces.
The fighting has forced thousands of refugees to flee to UNHCR camps near the eastern city of Goma.
They are adding to a total of 300,000 people displaced from the area so far this year, according to the UNHCR.
The general said the government was providing artillery support to local militia (known as the Mai Mai) and former Hutu members of the Rwandan army (the FDLR) who were attacking his forces.
Gen Nkunda said he had now ordered his forces actively to defend themselves.
He has repeatedly accused the Congolese army of working with the Mai Mai and FDLR to attack Congolese Tutsis, known as Banyamulenge, in his home province of North Kivu.
The general justifies his insurrection as being in "self-defence" of the Banyamulenge.
"We have told ourselves we will no longer stand with our arms crossed while people are dying. We must react. We are soldiers," he told Reuters news agency by telephone.
"Monuc thinks there is a ceasefire, but we've abandoned it."
In Kinshasa, the government has given the rebel general an ultimatum of 15 October to cease hostilities and integrate his forces into the army or face tough action.
posted by jackaranda at 5:18 pm
1 Comments:
I don't know where the "disinformation" concerning Tutsi Banyamulenge in North-Kivu originally came from but it continues to have traction (for a reason that totally escapes me). The Banyamulenge tutsi population is located in South-Kivu province, especially in the Hauts Plateaux of the Itombwe region. There is fighting there at the moment between a few hundred dissidents who refused to leave the region to be integrated into the new Congolese army, because the Banyamulenge were threathened by marauding bands of Rwandan Hutu rebels now as the FDLR. General Nkunda, on the other hand belongs to the so called Banyarwanda population located in North Kivu and made up of majority and minority components of Hutus and Tutsis, just like in neighboring Rwanda. TYou can follow the meanderings of this confusing situation and get some of insider information at www.obsac.com
Pierre Bigras
Editor
Observatoire de l'Afrique de l'est
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