Rwandan Hutu rebels attacked in DRC
Goma - The UN peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo and
government forces have attacked Rwandan Hutu rebels based in eastern
borderlands, UN and Congolese officials said on Wednesday.
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels have
been involved in nearly two decades of conflict that spilled into
eastern DRC after neighbouring Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Government troops, backed by a United Nations brigade with a robust
mandate to eradicate DRC's myriad eastern armed groups, won a rare
victory last year against M23, a Congolese Tutsi rebel force that had
been the FDLR's principal enemy.
Colonel Felix Basse, military spokesperson for the DRC mission, known
as Monusco, said UN troops had deployed in the Virunga National Park
in North Kivu province and were backing a Congolese offensive against
the FDLR.
"Since Sunday, we have deployed our men and we have had contact with
FDLR in that zone," Basse told a news conference in North Kivu's
provincial capital Goma. He said two rebels had been killed in the
fighting so far.
Basse said the 3 000-strong UN Intervention Brigade, made up of troops
from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi, was taking part in the joint
offensive. "These operations will continue. We have a mandate to
protect the population and restore the authority of the state," he
said.
The FDLR is made up in part of former Rwandan soldiers and Hutu
militia who fled to DRC after taking part in the killing of 800 000
Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus 20 years ago. They are accused of
civilian killings and rapes by rights groups.
While their numbers have dwindled to a few thousand in recent years,
previous attempts to disarm the rebels have failed. They are
considered one of the principal obstacles to durable peace in the
mineral-rich zone.
"So far the FDLR have refused to disarm, which is why we have
attacked. We will not stop until they lay down their arms," Congolese
government spokesman Lambert Mende said.
"We alone, or with the support of our partners in Monusco, must put an
end to this threat against our populations."
Rwanda twice invaded DRC in the late 1990s to try to wipe out Hutu
fighters, helping ignite two regional wars and countless smaller
conflicts that killed millions of people.
Kigali has been accused of backing armed groups in eastern DRC, most
recently by a panel of UN experts who say Rwanda armed and organised
M23. Rwanda has denied this and says DRC's army is collaborating with
the FDLR.
At the height of its 20-month rebellion M23 took control of Goma -
eastern DRC's largest city - in the most serious threat to President
Joseph Kabila's regime to date.
A UN experts' report in January said there were credible reports that
the M23 continued to recruit fighters in Rwanda.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Rwandan-Hutu-rebels-attacked-in-DRC-20140312-3&q=Rwandan+Hutu+rebels+attacked+in+DRC
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SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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