Category: DR Congo

DR Congo: Congo says no talks with Nkunda outside peace pact 278 Reads

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 12:46 PM

Tue 25 Nov 2008, 13:28 GMT

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Direct peace talks between Congo's government and Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda are "impossible" unless they take place within the framework of an earlier January peace accord, the government said on Tuesday.

"We agree to negotiate with Nkunda, within the Amani framework," Democratic Republic of Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters, referring to a January peace pact signed by Nkunda which he has since repudiated as one-sided.

Direct talks with the rebel chief outside of this framework, which had included other armed groups in eastern Congo, were "impossible", Mende said.

"No one is going to be negotiating outside the Amani framework," he added. Amani means "peace" in Swahili.

Mende was responding to a call by a United Nations special envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, for Congolese President Joseph Kabila to talk to Nkunda, whose rebels have won territory in the eastern province of North Kivu.

Obasanjo, who met Nkunda on November 16, said on Monday the insurgent leader had presented three main demands -- direct talks with the Congolese government, protection of minorities, and integration of his soldiers and administrators in rebel-controlled areas into the Congolese army and government.

The U.N. mediator told reporters he did not consider these demands to be "outrageous," adding that Kabila's government could meet Nkunda to iron out details.

After weeks of fighting that drove around a quarter of a million people from their homes, a shaky ceasefire appears to be holding in North Kivu as Obasanjo tries to arrange peace talks.

DR Congo: Charities launch appeal as Congo suffering grows 294 Reads

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 08:51 PM

Rob Crilly in Goma

Charities will launch a multimillion-pound appeal today to help people affected by violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after giving warning that the full extent of suffering remains hidden deep in the tropical jungle.

More than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes to escape a flare-up in the Congo’s continuing cycle of violence, adding to a million already displaced.

Yesterday rebels made good on a promise to pull back from two front lines to allow United Nations peacekeepers to police a buffer zone.

Aid agencies that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee, including World Vision, Save the Children and Merlin, said that a massive increase in the humanitarian response was needed.

Juliette Prodhan, Oxfam’s country director, said: “We need access to the people hanging out in the forests where there is insecurity. We need food, shelter, blankets, water. The rainy season is here and a cholera epidemic is coming if we don’t sort things out.” She added that many of the displaced were hiding out of sight.

“In a strange way the people in the camps are the lucky ones,” she said. “There are problems with insecurity and they need more protection but they are at least visible. The ones hiding in the forest are frightened to death.”

Meanwhile, Tutsi rebels under the command of General Laurent Nkunda pulled back from positions they won from the Government in a rapid advance at the weekend.

DR Congo: AU urges summit to guarantee Congo rebels disarmed 295 Reads

Friday, November 07, 2008 - 10:01 AM

An emergency summit on the crisis in eastern Congo should ensure that past agreements are respected and all rebel groups disarmed, African Union (AU) Chairman Jakaya Kikwete said Friday.

Speaking after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the regional summit in Nairobi, Kikwete said Laurent Nkunda's CNDP rebel group, pro-government Mai-Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels (FDLR) in the region should all be disarmed.

"To end instability in the Kivu province once and for all, and indeed to deal with suspicions between our Congolese and Rwandan brothers and sisters and other neighbours, we have to address the question of the FDLR, CNDP and other rebel groups based in the Congo," he said.

"It is time the agreements and understandings about the FDLR being disarmed, demobilised, and repatriated or relocated, should be implemented to the letter and spirit," said Kikwete, who is Tanzania's president.

"I expect this meeting to ensure that the Congolese rebel groups such as Mai-Mai, CNDP and others implement to the letter and spirit the Goma 'Amani' process which all of them negotiated, agreed and signed."

DR Congo: U.N. says east Congo rebels seizing more territory 281 Reads

Thursday, November 06, 2008 - 09:39 AM

GOMA, Congo, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Congolese Tutsi rebels have captured eastern villages in fresh advances and are seeking to extend the territory they control in North Kivu province, a United Nations military spokesman said on Thursday.

The rebel movements north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma indicated continuing violence and displacement of civilians, despite a ceasefire declared by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda last week when he suspended an offensive against Goma.

"They (the rebels) have taken Nyanzale and Kikuku, therefore breaking their own declared ceasefire. Now it's clear they are trying to have a territory completely under their control," Lt-Col Jean-Paul Dietrich of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC) told Reuters.

He added U.N. troops and human rights experts were also checking reports that the Tutsi fighters loyal to Nkunda had killed civilians when they drove pro-government Mai-Mai militia from another village, Kiwanja, on Wednesday.

Thousands of Kiwanja residents fled the village in panic to nearby Rutshuru, 70 km (45 miles) north of Goma. Kiwanja was completely deserted on Thursday, witnesses said.

DR Congo: Rebel General Nkunda surrounds major town, vowing to liberate Congo 302 Reads

Tuesday, November 04, 2008 - 07:10 AM

General Nkunda said he would 'liberate' the Congo if the Government did not talk

Patrick Barth in Rutshuru, Tristan McConnell and Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent

In one hand, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. In the other, a spear. The rebel fighter's weapons spoke volumes about Congo's wars old and new. For centuries this country has been racked by strife. While the tools of violence have changed the outcome remains the same — killing, suffering and hardship.

General Laurent Nkunda promised yesterday to “liberate” the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the first international aid convoy to cross rebel lines since fighting broke out found displacement camps razed and empty of people.

Speaking to reporters at his jungle base, General Nkunda threatened to drive the Government from power if it refused direct talks. “We are going to pressure [the Government] to have negotiations, otherwise we will force them from power,” he said.

The Government in Kinshasa rejected the demands, raising fears of further fighting. Rebel forces remain a few miles from the outskirts of Goma, the regional capital, from where a rebel spokesman responded: “The Government has just launched the war on its people.”

In 1997 General Nkunda, who has a force of about 5,000 fighters, was a senior commander in the rebel army that forced the dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, from power after marching across the vast country.

Last week's fighting in the east of the country displaced up to 100,000 civilians, of whom 60 per cent were children, the United Nations Children's Fund said yesterday.

Returning from a visit to the region over the weekend David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, did not rule out sending troops to the Congo, while his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, called for more soldiers.

“No one's ruling out a military role,” Mr Miliband said in Marseilles before a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. British ministers say that there is no immediate prospect of a European force going to Congo, and still hope that the UN force, Monuc, will be sufficient.

However, Alan Doss, Monuc's head, has said his 17,000 strong force is overstretched, with only 900 UN troops responsible for Goma. The UN force, mostly Indian and Guatemalan soldiers, has been criticised for failing to protect civilians from rape and attack by retreating government forces.

The UN Secretary-General's deputy for peacekeeping will report to the Security Council this week on what can be done to strengthen the force. Mr Miliband said no decisions would be taken before the council met.