Government troop movements near the Ugandan and Rwandan borders in eastern Congo risk igniting fresh fighting in a region shaken by weeks of clashes, rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said on Tuesday.
"I think [President Joseph] Kabila wants to fight," Nkunda said, saying the government forces included Rwandan rebels intent on attacking Rwanda.
Weeks of battles between government loyalists and Nkunda's rebels have plunged the Democratic Republic of Congo back into violence and upset a fragile peace process aimed at ending years of conflict in central Africa.
Dissident troops loyal to Nkunda seized the strategic eastern town of Bukavu earlier this month in clashes that killed at least 90 people, sparking deadly riots in Kinshasa by angry protesters blaming the UN for letting the border town fall.
Congo's brittle transition government, forged under a series of peace deals and tasked with organizing elections by next year, was shaken by an apparent coup attempt on Friday.
The army said late Monday that eight more suspects had been arrested over the plot, bringing the total to 20. Some officials have said the coup leader, a member of Kabila's personal guard, may have been killed, but others say he is still at large.
The rebels in the east withdrew from Bukavu about a week ago on condition the government investigate Nkunda's claims of a "genocide" against Tutsis living in eastern Congo.
Army spokesman Leon Kasongo in Kinshasa said he knew "nothing about troop movements" in the area but diplomats and UN officials confirmed a buildup over the past week.
"Troops of various tribes loyal to the government have reinforced in a semi-circle around Goma and we've heard more troops are gathering," said a Western diplomat in Kinshasa.
"There could be Mai-Mai [traditional warriors] and Interahamwe [Hutu extremists] going to support the government," he said, adding that some Congolese government and army officials were "in a panic" about a Rwandan invasion.
Rwanda has twice invaded Congo, in 1996 and 1998, to hunt down Hutu extremists it says pose a threat to its borders.
In Rwanda's 1994 genocide, Interahamwe butchered 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days before fleeing into eastern Congo.
Their presence in the former Zaire triggered a five-year war that sucked in six countries and killed 3 million people, most from hunger and disease.
Nkunda's rebels say they are fighting to protect an ethnic Tutsi minority, but analysts suggest the fighting boils down to a turf war in a mineral-rich region.
Nkunda threatened to resume his fight this week, saying the government had not investigated his complaints.
Nkunda was a commander in the Rally for Congolese Democracy rebel group backed by Rwanda in Congo's war, officially now part of a transitional government and newly unified army.
Nkunda refused to swear allegiance to Kinshasa, however, and on Tuesday he said government reinforcements had been made without the knowledge of General Obedi Rwibasira, the military commander of North Kivu province.
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