A 12-vehicle UN convoy took desperately needed aid yesterday to a rebel-held town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as the government rejected the rebel leader’s demand for talks.
Laurent Nkunda, who has wrested control of several strategic towns, threatened in a meeting with reporters on Sunday to launch a campaign to overthrow the government if his offer was turned down.
The UN convoy of about a dozen vehicles left Goma, capital of Nord-Kivu province, for Rutshuru, about 75km to the north, escorted by around 50 UN peacekeepers.
PHOTO: EPA
Thousands of people lined the road from Goma to Rutshuru during the journey. It was the first humanitarian aid delivery behind rebel lines since fighting broke out in August.
Tens of thousands of people live in camps around Rutshuru and many fled into nearby villages and jungle after the new fighting between Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and government forces.
The aid convoy had a small amount of water and medical supplies, but UN officials were to size up the possibility of sending bigger convoys through rebel territory, UN humanitarian official Gloria Fernandez said.
She said medical supplies and tablets to purify water were the priority in this shipment. The priority is to take pressure of Rutshuru hospital, the only operating medical facility in a region of hundreds of thousands of people, she said.
She said clinics there have been “looted and completely destroyed.”
Another convoy today would be bringing food for some of the 250,000 refugees displaced by fighting, she said.
“At the moment, we are sending a team to see if it is possible to bring things to Rutshuru in the coming days,” said Theo Kapuku, national program officer for the UN World Food Programme.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, the UN Children’s Fund and the British medical aid charity Merlin also had representatives on the convoy.
Rebels were allowing farmers to reach Goma, the provincial capital, in trucks packed with cabbages, onions and spinach. The UN convoy also stopped to deliver a sack of potatoes to UN troops in Rugari.
The rebels declared a ceasefire last week after surrounding Goma where more than 1 million people have been displaced by fighting.
Nkunda threatened at a meeting with reporters at his stronghold of Kichangna to oust the government in Kinshasa unless it holds “direct” talks on his demands.
“We say we have to fight until we are going to get resolution of our problems through negotiations or if they ignore [that call], we are going to force them, to liberate Congo,” Nkunda said.
“For us, Congo is under occupation. An occupation of negative forces protected by our government. And our government has betrayed his people,” he said.
However, government spokesman Lambert Mende said that all “armed groups” in Nord-Kivu should be treated in the same way.
“The government sees no reason to discriminate against other groups of Congolese who have propositions to make” on the crisis in the country, he said.
Nkunda’s group was one of several in Nord-Kivu who signed a ceasefire in January and the government spokesman said any contacts had to be part of this process.
Meanwhile, Nkunda said his troops were at the gates of Goma and had infiltrated Goma airport. He said he had ordered his troops to halt their advance because he saw the suffering of people in Goma, and declared the ceasefire.
While Nkunda’s rebels have sought to reassure local people that they would be safe, Western governments have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster in the central African nation.
“More than 1.6 million internally displaced are trapped in the crisis” and cannot be easily reached, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Sunday in the Tanzanian city of Dar Es Salaam. “They are without food, water and other necessities.”
Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, chairman of the African Union, following talks with DR Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame.
Miliband and Kouchner were to present a joint report on the crisis at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Marseille yesterday.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS