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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: North Kivu ceasefire follow-up meeting to be held in Beni

NAIROBI, 26 June 2003 (IRIN) - A follow-up meeting to work out ceasefire modalities for North Kivu Province between two rebel groups and the government in Kinshasa was due to be held on Thursday in the town of Beni, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a senior UN official said.

Amos Namanga Ngongi, who heads the UN Mission in the DRC known as MONUC, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Kinshasa, the capital, that the focus would be on the implementation of the Bujumbura Act of Engagement signed on 19 June by the DRC government, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD/K-ML) - a rebel group allied with Kinshasa, and the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel movement.

He added that the parties to the accord would work out plans for the withdrawal of troops and identification of sites where joint verification teams would monitor ceasefire implementation.

On Wednesday, local sources told IRIN that the situation across the region remained calm - with many internally displaced people returning to their homes - but tense, with numerous reports of troop movements and pillaging.

The North Kivu ceasefire agreement risked being undermined by capture of the town of Lubero by RCD-Goma on the day the accord was signed. RCD-Goma alleged that government troops together with Rwandan Hutu militias known as "Interahamwe" had attacked RCD-Goma positions, while Kinshasa and RCD-K/ML said that the Rwandan Patriotic Army had launched the offensive. Fighting between RCD-Goma and RCD-K/ML erupted in North Kivu in April.

Ngongi, who presided over the ceasefire talks, called the North Kivu hostilities "unacceptable and embarrassing".

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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