Over 150 rebels killed in recent Congo fighting
Source: Reuters
By David Lewis KINSHASA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - More than 150 rebels were killed when U.N. peacekeepers fought off a rebel offensive in east Congo last week, officials said on Tuesday, adding that the heavy losses had led to surrenders among the divided insurgents. The casualty figure was the highest recorded from fighting involving U.N. troops in Democratic Republic of Congo, where the U.N. has its largest peacekeeping mission in the world. U.N. forces used helicopter gunships, heavy weapons and armoured vehicles in several days of fighting last week against rebels led by dissident General Laurent Nkunda, who had dislodged government soldiers near the town of Sake. The Congolese army had since regained positions but sporadic clashes continued on Tuesday, highlighting insecurity in the east a day before Joseph Kabila was to be sworn in as Congo's first freely elected president in more than four decades. Incumbent Kabila won the historic presidential run-off vote last month largely due to his massive support in the east, where his fellow Swahili-speakers credit him with bringing Congo's 1998-2003 war to an end. "We are still finding (rebel) bodies, but so far we have found more than 150," Col. Delphin Kahimbi, deputy head of the Congolese army in North Kivu province, told Reuters on Tuesday. "They (the rebels) were hit hard by the U.N.'s helicopters and tanks," Kahimbi said. Indian U.N. soldiers were forced to engage in some of the U.N. peacekeeping mission's heaviest fighting after poorly equipped and disorganised government troops withdrew during attacks by the rebels, who were threatening the town of Goma. A spokesman for the 17,600-strong U.N. mission would not confirm the rebel death toll of 150 but a senior U.N. military officer told Reuters "the reports were in that direction". Officials believe the final toll could be much higher as Nkunda's men usually take away their dead during battles. U.N. officials said there were no U.N. casualties. "HUGE CATCH" Days after the fighting subsided, Col Bernard Byamungu, Nkunda's operations commander, and Dieudonne Kabika, the secretary general of his political movement, surrendered along with nine other fighters to U.N. peacekeepers. "The robust display of resolve by the U.N. has fomented a split in Nkunda's ranks," said Maj. Ajay Dalal, spokesman for the Indian peacekeepers. The senior U.N. officer described Byamungu's surrender as "a huge catch". He was handed over to government forces. Nkunda was unavailable for comment on Tuesday but in a letter posted on his website his spokesman accused the U.N. of collaborating with Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo. During Congo's last war -- which sucked in neighbouring armies and armed groups -- Nkunda, a Tutsi, fought for rebels backed by Kigali, which had sent its army into the country to hunt Hutu militia who took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Nkunda continues to claim to protect Congolese of Rwandan origin but he appears increasingly marginalised and has an international arrest warrant hanging over him for war crimes. "Byamungu has handed himself in because they were hit hard. Many others have indicated that they are on the way out of the bush," the Congolese army's Kahimbi said.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
