Republic of the Congo

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Rebel chief agrees to ceasefire in Congo

The rebel leader Laurent Nkunda agreed to support UN efforts to restore peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday even as his troops were battling government forces. After meeting the UN special envoy, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nkunda said he would respect a ceasefire, contribute to a mission monitoring violations, and open a humanitarian corridor for people displaced by months of heavy fighting in North Kivu province. "Today is a great day for us because we were losing many men and now we have a message of peace," said Nkunda, who wore a grey suit rather than his usual fatigues to the meeting in his home village of Jomba, near the Ugandan border. After the two-hour talks, which saw the two men dance briefly with rebels and children outside the church compound, Obasanjo said that he had been asked by Nkunda to tell the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, to suspend fighting. "I know now what he [Nkunda] wants," Obasanjo said. "I know that a ceasefire is like dancing the tango: it cannot be done by one only."But while the talks were taking place the UN peacekeeping mission, Monuc, reported heavy fighting between Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), who claim to be protecting the minority Tutsi population, and government troops near Ndeko, 70 miles north of the provincial capital Goma. Clashes between the two forces have displaced more than 250,000 people since September, and raised concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe. Previous ceasefire agreements have failed. Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, a spokesman for the Monuc forces, told Reuters that the fighting dampened hopes of a lasting peace. "The army is firing rockets. The CNDP is using mortars. It's not a good sign if they continue to fight while the special envoy is holding talks".Nkunda, who has close ties to Rwanda and claims that Kabila's troops are assisting Hutu rebels linked to the 1994 genocide, also accuses Monuc of bias against him. Obasanjo said Nkunda had agreed to the formation of a tripartite commission to monitor ceasefire violations on the condition that Monuc was not involved. Nkunda has requested face-to-face talks with Kabila, but so far he has refused. Obasanjo said he expected that peace talks between the warring parties would take place soon in Nairobi, but that the leaders would not be directly involved. "I expect exploratory talks. When it gets to a stage where the negotiators of both sides reach a point, they will report to President Kabila, who will then come to it."Democratic Republic of the Congoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

UN chief to visit Congo amid new rebel threats

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, is to travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to press for an end to the "catastrophic" conflict there as the Tutsi rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, threatened to attack Goma and march across the country after the government rejected direct peace negotiations. The UN described Goma yesterday as a "red line", and France called for the peacekeeping operation in eastern Congo to be strengthened with better troops and a stronger mandate.UN peacekeepers could do no more than stay in their bases as heavy fighting between Nkunda's forces and Hutu rebels flared again around Rutshuru, the town north of Goma seized by the Tutsi general last week, despite a ceasefire.UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said it had found three of its camps near Rutshuru destroyed and empty, and it was searching for the 50,000 people who had been living in them. The Congo government said it was only prepared to negotiate collectively with all rebel groups, which include Rwandan Hutu extremists and local militias. In response, Nkunda threatened to take his war all the way to the capital, Kinshasa."If they refuse to negotiate, it will mean they will be ready to only fight and we will fight them because we have to fight for our freedom," he told Reuters. "Goma is just a place to pass through ... When they force us to come down to Goma we won't stop there." Militarily, all that stands between Nkunda and his seizure of Goma are several hundred UN peacekeepers after government troops fled the rebel advance. But an assault on the town would almost certainly draw a strong international reaction and create problems not only for Nkunda but neighbouring Rwanda, which is widely perceived as backing him. The head of UN peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, said on a visit to Goma that his forces would do all they could to defend the town from attack by the rebels, who have halted near the outskirts. "Our priority is Goma - to make sure Goma is a red line."The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, called for the UN peacekeeping mission to be given more troops and a stronger mandate. He said the force needed "more of an offensive capability"."We need different soldiers, and different rules of engagement," he said.But some diplomats say that what is needed is greater political will by big powers to press Congo and Rwanda into ensuring that existing peace agreements are upheld. Ban said he will travel to Congo, Rwanda and other countries in the region in the coming days in an effort to bring an end to the conflict. He confirmed the former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo as his special envoy to the region.CongoUnited NationsFranceInternational aid and developmentguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

UK peace mission to Congo

British foreign secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, flew into Goma, capital of the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) yesterday, amid warnings that hundreds of thousands of people displaced by fighting were facing a humanitarian disaster. Miliband arrived in the city after meeting the Congolese President, Joseph Kabila, as part of desperate international efforts to prevent the DRC slipping back into all-out war, which has claimed more than five million lives since 1998.The two will now fly to Kigali in Rwanda to meet President Paul Kagame, who is accused of supporting Tutsi insurgents. They said yesterday they were urging the full implementation of existing peace agreements between Congo and Rwanda, and the disarming of militias. They are also encouraging a swift meeting between Kabila and Kagame to negotiate an end to the conflict.Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said yesterday that British and EU troops might have to be sent if all else failed.As the European diplomatic initiative swung into action, the first eyewitness accounts began to emerge from the area of the towns of Rutshuru and Kiwanja - 60 miles to the north of Goma - which have been the epicentre of the worst fighting following an offensive by Tutsi rebels loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda, which was followed by killings and looting by Congolese army troops. Despite a ceasefire announced on Wednesday by Nkunda, the fighting has driven tens of thousands of civilians from their homes in North Kivu province on the border with Rwanda, emptying the camps around Rutshuru and triggering warnings from aid agencies of a 'catastrophe'. A Foreign Office spokesman said the main emphasis of the Miliband visit was 'to implement the existing Nairobi and Goma agreements towards a political settlement'. Key unresolved issues that help sparked the renewed crisis have included the failure to implement agreements on transitional justice, the integration of rebel troops into the Congolese army and guarantees to allow the return of internally displaced. Concern is growing over the fate of 50,000 people pushed out of the camps. Witnesses described how the camps had been emptied - some by armed rebels from the CNDP of Nkunda - and several clinics and shelters burnt. They also talked of desperate and chaotic scenes as tens of thousands fled northwards.A Congolese aid worker with Caritas-Goma, delivering his first consignment of blankets and plastic sheeting for emergency shelters in Rutshuru for the British charity Cafod last week, got caught up in the violence in the town. Edie Yamawanzeylo and his colleagues became trapped between fleeing Congolese soldiers - who pillaged their vehicles - and the advancing forces CNDP. 'The camps were emptying,' he said yesterday. 'The people were all on the road without shelter or heat. Some said they were going voluntarily. But in other places we saw villages that had been destroyed and houses burnt. There was looting and chaos. 'This is where the worst of the fighting has been taking place', added a spokesman for the UNHCR refugee agency, disputing claims that the camps were hotbeds for Hutu fighters after the Rwandan genocide of 1994. 'The people in these camps were simply not Tutsi like the CNDP. The idea that there are large numbers of Hutu fighters is a fantasy. This has been about seizing territory.'Another witness to the fighting was British surgeon David Knott, who recently returned after working in the Médecins Sans Frontières clinic in Rutshuru. 'It started in August. We would be getting four or five cases with war wounds - almost exclusively bullet wounds - one day and then there would be an upsurge in the fighting and we would see 20 cases come in. It carried on like that until October, when we were dealing with 70 cases a day. Sometimes the workload was just phenomenal. I was absolutely exhausted. The wards were overflowing ,so we built tents in the grounds to deal with the overflow.'As the fighting grew worse Knott was increasingly at risk. 'I was stopped on the road to Goma by this crazed Congolese soldier who jumped out and was screaming and screaming. I could smell the alcohol on his breath and feel the barrel of his rifle in my shoulder.'Yesterday, as the CNDP staged a celebration rally in Rutshuru, it was eerily quiet. While the CNDP spokesman announced that the roads were open and Rutshuru safe, a Reuters correspondent found locals scared of Nkunda's men. Residents said they resented the presence of the rebel soldiers, whom they described as coming from Rwanda. 'We're not happy with these people, because they want to take power and destroy our democracy,' complained local farmer Kavusa Magazine. 'What are they going to do for us?'CongoForeign policyDavid Milibandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds