Rebels gain ground in DR Congo clashes
GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Monday they had regained control of two key villages after heavy fighting with army troops, as a major government offensive appeared to stall.
A week after Congolese forces launched an offensive in the troubled eastern province of Nord-Kivu, rebels were gaining back ground.
Loyalists of renegade ex-general Laurent Nkunda said they had retaken several positions, including Mushake and Karuba, strategic villages west of the provincial capital Goma only recently under government control.
"We have just retaken Karuba this afternoon. We have seized arms and munitions. We are also holding Mushake," rebel spokesman Seraphin Mirindi told AFP.
A spokeswoman for the UN mission in DR Congo (MONUC), Sylvie van den Wildenberg, confirmed the rebels had taken Mushake, which the army had only gained control of five days previously.
"We also have had information of an attack by Nkunda troops on Karuba," a village the army had taken from the rebels in October, she told AFP.
Army commanders could not be reached for comment.
The rebel advances mark a reversal for the army that appeared to be consolidating its positions in Nord-Kivu just a few hours before the rebel counter-attack, UN and army sources said.
President Joseph Kabila, who has been closely involved in planning the offensive launched last week, cancelled a visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, a spokesman said.
"Just after a cabinet reshuffle and as (military) operations are taking place in Nord-Kivu, the place of the president is here, in Congo, to respond to the concerns of the Congolese people," spokesman Kudura Kasongo said.
The fighting also caused Kabila to cancel attendance at an EU-Africa summit in Portugal over the weekend.
Last Thursday, a confident Kabila had paid homage to the "bravery" of his troops as the major offensive seemed to be working.
"The government is determined to put everything in place to quickly re-establish a sustainable peace and security," Kabila had said in his annual state of the nation address to both houses of parliament.
The Congolese army has been shelling Nkunda's men for the past three days but has been unable to advance to rebel bastions north of Kingi, 25 kilometres (16 miles) west of Goma.
Instead, it has been forced to consolidate more western positions. It had described last Wednesday the fall of Mushake as a "great victory."
Monday's clashes come a week after the 25,000-strong army launched a vast offensive against Nkunda loyalists, who number about 4,000.
The rebel general has so far rejected demands by Kinshasa and the UN to disarm, and by Washington to surrender and go into exile.
Nkunda says he is defending local Tutsis against Hutu rebels from neighbouring Rwanda holed up in the DR Congo since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The renewed violence has fed UN fears for the welfare of tens of thousands of people already displaced by months of unrest.
"MONUC continues to try and convince the population to displace to zones further away from the fighting," said van den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman from the UN mission.
She cited in particular Kirolirwe, some 50 kilometers northwest of Goma, where 15,000 displaced, mostly Tutsi civilians, are staying at a camp and where MONUC has established a mobile base.
