KIBATI, DR Congo (AFP) — Troops from Angola have been seen fighting alongside Congolese forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN peacekeeping official said Saturday.
Angolan units were deployed Friday near Kibati, just north of the Nord-Kivu provincial capital Goma, on the front line separating the Congolese army from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebels, he said.
Speaking to AFP near the front line, the UN official -- an officer in the MONUC peacekeeping force who requested anonymity -- said the Angolans had taken part in fighting on Friday.
He said he met a Portuguese-speaking combatant who "told me that he was Angolan and that other (Angolan soldiers) were on the hill" at Kibati where Congolese government forces have set up camp.
The situation was calm along the front line Saturday, with a 500-metre (500-yard) buffer zone separating the opposing forces. An AFP reporter was able to cross the front line without difficulty, with the consent of the two sides.
The rebels, led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, alleged Friday that Angolan troops were fighting in support of government forces in the Kibati area. Kinshasa denies there are foreign troops on Congolese soil.
In the Congolese capital, UN spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich also denied the presence of foreign troops, but pointed out that there is "military cooperation" between Congo and Angola.
"There are perhaps Angolan (military) instructors in country," he added.
If verified, the presence of Angolan troops would signal the regionalisation of the conflict in eastern Congo -- a development that neighbouring Rwanda, which denies supporting the rebels, could see as a provocation.
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