DR CONGO: Democratic republic of Congo army prepares for offensive against rebel general and local militia.

Eastern DRC remains on tenterhooks, with refugees continuing to flee the area ahead of an expected military offensive by Congolese troops against the forces of rebel Laurent Nkunda and a local militia group. Congolese government forces are preparing to expand their military campaign in the east of the country to include another front against a local militia in addition to an ongoing fight against a renegade Tutsi general. Congo's army has been fighting rebels loyal to Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu province since August, when his men abandoned a January peace deal and pulled out of mixed government brigades. U.N. peacekeepers have deployed in support of the Congolese army in an effort to prevent Nkunda's fighters from trying to reach the provincial capital Goma. "At the moment, we are trying to offer protection to the population, that's it," said Lieutenant Colonel Brintbatt, a UN peacekeeper. The United Nations estimates around 370,000 people have fled fighting between government soldiers, Nkunda's rebels, local militia, and Rwandan Hutu rebels in North Kivu since the beginning of this year. "We are all Hutus and the Tutsis started to attack our village so we all fled. We arrived yesterday in this school but we have nothing to feed our children and we are sleeping on the floor," said Miransadimana Tarudie, a displaced person. Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, operations commander of government forces in North Kivu, said a local Mai Mai militia group, which says it is working alongside the army, was in fact hindering his plans to deal with Nkunda, and that he was now ready to act against them too. He gave the group 48 hours to go to army integration centres and disarm or face military action. North Kivu, a vast province bordering Uganda and Rwanda, has long been a hotbed of violence in the region. Nkunda accuses the Congolese government of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), another rebel group including Rwandan ex-Hutu militia fighters and Rwandan soldiers responsible for that country's 1994 genocide. The Mai Mai fighters have carried out operations with the FDLR against Nkunda. Rwanda has twice invaded Congo in pursuit of Hutu rebels it blames for the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Kahimbi suspects Kigali of preparing to enter Congo again. "We have our forces which are prepared for a possible intervention of the Rwandan army. Until now, we know that the 9th Brigade saw soldiers coming from Rwanda, you know that the borderline is just seven kilometres from here, so we are trying to confirm this information. But you know, when the Congolese army is accused of using the Hutu Interhamwe, it's completely wrong. I think that Rwanda has always used this kind of pretext to enter into Congolese territory," he said. The second Rwandan invasion triggered a 1998-2003 war in Congo which killed some four million people, mostly from disease and hunger caused by the fighting.

ITN Source | October 24, 2007

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