DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: More villagers flee their homes in eastern Congo as fighting continues

Thousands of people have fled their homes in Eastern Congo as a result of fighting between the government's newly integrated army and FDLR rebels (former Rwandan Interahamwe militia who participated in the genocide). Thousands of villagers are continuing to abandon their homes and farms in eastern Congo as government troops square off against rebel militias. Fighting erupted in the area after the army deployed a battalion largely made up of troops loyal to renegage general Laurent Nkunda, to the troubled region. ''We have given an ultimatum to FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) militias to go home to Rwanda, we've given them a deadline of one week, and because they know that, they are determined to fight, they attacked first and we defended ourselves which is why people here are fleeing their homes. I think this situation will be resolved soon," said Rene Abandi, a spokesman for the political wing of Nkunda's militia. Nkunda's troops report that they have destroyed 5 FDLR bases so far. Bands of Congolese and foreign militia - like the FDLR - still terrorise civilians in the country's east, despite the presence of the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission. Congo's newly-integrated army is itself identified by rights groups as the worst abuser of human rights in the area. The FDLR is largely made up of former Rwandan soldiers and members of the Hutu militias, or Interahamwe, which took part in Rwanda's 100-day genocide in 1994 in which more than 800,000 people were killed. They fled Rwanda when a Tutsi force swept to power in July that year, led by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Kigali has long accused Congo of arming and harbouring the FDLR, but Kinshasa has made efforts in recent years to expel the militia, prompting the resumption of diplomatic relations last year.

ITN Source | March 2, 2007

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