UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) have transferred troops to hotspots in the east of the country to handle the fallout of increased fighting there between rebels and the army.
MONUC, the UN Mission in DR Congo, which has 14,000 peacekeepers deployed in the country, had moved troops from Sud-Kivu and Ituri towards Nord-Kivu, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, a spokesman said.
“We have very mobile units, armored cars, helicopters, we are ready,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich.
Fighting broke out late last month in Nord-Kivu between government troops — the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) — and rebels of the CNDC, led by renegade Tutsi colonel Laurent Nkunda.
“MONUC will continue to intervene with all means at its disposal and will take all necessary measures to assure the protection of the population and the free circulation on the main roads,” Dietrich said.
Peacekeepers were also patrolling Lake Kivu, which forms part of the border between DR Congo and Rwanda, to prevent any fighters reaching Goma, the regional capital of Nord-Kivu, he added.
“We have the means on the ground and we will not let village after village be taken,” said Dietrich.
Nkunda loyalists and government forces have skirmished regularly in the hills of North Kivu since Aug. 28, with both sides blaming each other for the violence.
The fighting, which violates the Goma peace accords signed in January, have continued despite the efforts of UN peacekeepers to intervene.
On Friday, MONUC forces used helicopter flyovers and fired warning shots to stop Nkunda’s fighters from taking the village of Nyanzale, in the Rutshuru district 65km north of Goma.
Government troops had abandoned the village as the rebel fighters advanced, military and UN sources said.
“At Nyanzale, a whole integrated brigade disintegrated, they fled,” Dietrich said.
Two days later, this same brigade that had been ordered to move, pulled back, pillaging the local population on its way, the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi said.
While the authorities in Kinshasa have denounced MONUC for failing to support one side or the other, the UN peacekeepers have said that their priority is to protect local civilians rather than to take sides.
On Saturday, UN peacekeepers demanded that Nkunda’s group withdraw from one position they had taken.
But when MONUC made a similar demand of government forces last week, they were accused of siding with Nkunda and attacked by demonstrators in Rutshuru, north of Goma.
One UN vehicle was burned and the peacekeepers had to open fire to withdraw, wounding one demonstrator.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing