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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: RCD-Goma begins second round of withdrawals from Lubero

KINSHASA, 30 July 2003 (IRIN) - The Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) began on Tuesday its second round of withdrawals from the Congolese town of Lubero, North Kivu Province, in accordance with a ceasefire agreement signed on 19 June in Bujumbura, Burundi.

The move follows an initial withdrawal on 1 July to 15 km outside the town, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The former rebel movement, now a party to the newly installed transitional national government, said it had already pulled 600 of its soldiers out of the town.

The UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, confirmed that the second round of withdrawals had begun.

"We wanted to respect the accord signed in Bujumbura, and in a few days we will have completed the withdrawal of all our troops from Lubero," Eugene Serufuli, the RCD-Goma appointed provincial governor of North Kivu, said during a withdrawal ceremony in the town.

According to MONUC, RCD-Goma had deployed four battalions in the region, or about 4,000 soldiers, when fighting between RCD-Goma and RCD-K/ML erupted in April.

The Bujumbura ceasefire agreement for North Kivu risked being undermined by the capture 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, which had been allied to Kinshasa since April 2002, said that the Rwandan Patriotic Army had launched the offensive.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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