Africa News
Fighting scales down in eastern Congo, UN agency says
Oct 27, 2007, 8:04 GMT
Kampala, Uganda - A UN agency said Saturday that fighting has scaled down in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but warned that renegade forces, the government army and the tribal Mayi Mayi militia forces were poised to resume combat.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) said in a statement that 200 fighters from the renegade brigades of general Laurent Nkunda had surrendered to the UN peace- keeping group in the DRC known as MONUC.
Battles between the forces of general Nkunda, who claims he fights to protect his Tutsi tribesmen from harassment in the DRC's volatile North Kivu region, have been raging in recent weeks, pushing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes while up to 10,000 fled across the border with Uganda.
The Congolese government has also ordered the Mayi Mayi, who claim they are allied to the Kinshasa government, to disarm.
The situation had remained calm over the past few days, but armed groups remained in their positions, and the volatility could lead to an escalation of violence again, OCHA said in a press release.
Humanitarian agencies have taken advantage of the lull in the fighting to provide assistance to people who have been displaced, the agency said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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