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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 27 July 2006

DRC: Troops to be deployed in Ituri's most troubled areas, general says

BUNIA, 27 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - Specially trained Congolese troops will be deployed to the most security sensitive areas in the north-eastern district of Ituri before, during and after Sunday's general elections to ensure peace, area army commander Gen Mbuayama Nsiona said on Thursday.

At a news conference in Bunia, the district's capital, he said 630 soldiers would, from 29 to 31 July, secure polling stations in areas where anti-government forces are active.

The army estimates there are 3,000 fighters, from the Résistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI) and the Mouvement révolutionnaires congolais (MRC), about 20 km east and south of Bunia. Others of the Fronts des nationalistes integrationnistes (FNI), led by Peter Karim, are positioned 120 km north of the town.

Five soldiers will be assigned to ensure security in the area immediately around each polling station in Ituri's sensitive areas, said Nsiona. He said soldiers would also guard roads leading to villages with polling stations so that returning internally displaced persons could vote unmolested.

In addition, "many more troops will conduct air and ground patrols on Lake Albert to reassure the public and enable them to vote", he said.

The army, he said, had declared a unilateral truce during the polls and would not attack anti-government forces. The MRC secretary-general, Dieudonné Mbuna, also told IRIN on Thursday from Zumbe, 12 km southeast of Bunia, that its fighters would leave voters alone.

"We are for the elections; besides we have urged people under our control in Nioka [120 km northeast of Bunia] to vote," Mbuna said.

Mbuna confirmed an earlier statement by Nsiona that the MRC had agreed to be integrated into the national army and would be taken to the Rwampara military integration camp, 10 km west of Bunia.

"We have really demobilised our troops, the only combatants in our ranks are those that wish to be integrated into the national army," Mbuna said.


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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006