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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: MONUC halts militia clash in northeast

NAIROBI, 3 November 2003 (IRIN) - UN troops intervened on Friday to stop fighting in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo between two militia groups, the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) and the Parti pour l'Unite, la Solidarite et l'Integrite du Congo (PUSIC).

The UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, reported that some 350 UPC fighters from Mandro and Katoto, equipped with machine guns, RPG-7 rocket launchers and 81 mm mortars attacked the lakeside town of Tchomia, 45 km southeast of Bunia, the main town in Ituri District.

MONUC said on Saturday that it had ordered the militias to ceasefire and to surrender all their weapons or be forcibly disarmed. MONUC said that the Kasenyi-Tchomia region had been declared an "arms-free zone", and reminded the belligerents of their commitments to the cessation of hostilities.

Once the fighting ended, MONUC said it had imposed a disengagement plan, whereby UPC combatants withdrew to Niyamba, 5 km north of Tchomia, while PUSIC combatants withdrew to Kasenyi, 7 km to the southwest.

However, MONUC cautioned that the situation remained "tense and under close supervision" of its Ituri Brigade.

Uganda's government-owned newspaper, The New Vision, reported on Monday that elements of the Ugandan rebel People's Redemption Army were also said to have been fighting alongside the UPC. Ugandan army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza said "he was happy with MONUC's quick response", the daily reported.

MONUC termed the attack "a violation of all previous commitments", vowing that UN troops would continue enforcing commitments made by all parties.

In a related development, MONUC condemned fighting that also erupted on Friday between Mayi-Mayi militias and Rwandan rebels of the Forces democratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda in the Mwenga region of South Kivu Province, eastern Congo.

"The implementation of aid programmes in South Kivu cannot take place without a sustained improvement in security conditions on the ground," MONUC told the warring parties.

Meanwhile on Saturday, MONUC held meetings with Mayi-Mayi faction leaders Patrick Masunzu and Aaron Nyamushebwa in Minembwe, also in South Kivu, during which the militia leaders said they were in favour of national unification of the military and that they were committed to taking part in the Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration programme for ex-combatants.

MONUC said that such progress "formed the basis of reconciliation between communities" and that it would "enable increased humanitarian access to areas that had previously been difficult to reach".

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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