UN:At least 38 Rwandan militiamen and five Congolese soldiers have been killed in clashes this week as Congo's government strives to impose its authority on the country's war-torn east, a UN official said yesterday.
Maj Ajay Dalal, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in North Kivu province, said the fighting erupted after Democratic Republic of Congo's army deployed a battalion last week made up of reintegrated combatants from a 1998-2003 war.
"The mixed brigade started patrolling and some of their patrols met with FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and there were some clashes," Maj Dalal said.
Citing casualty figures provided by the Congolese army, he said at least 38 militia fighters had been killed during the past two days, compared with only five army dead. The UN mission in Congo (MONUC) had not been able to independently verify these figures, he added.
The fighting took place some 30km (19 miles) northeast of Rutshuru, close to the frontier with Rwanda and Uganda.
"MONUC is now patrolling the area," said Maj Dalal. "The present situation is calm but volatile." The area borders the giant Virunga National Park, a Unesco world heritage site which has become a hideout for Rwandan militia and their Congolese Mai-Mai counterparts.
President Joseph Kabila, who took office in December as Congo's first democratically elected leader in more than four decades, has pledged to bring peace after a 1998-2003 war which killed four million people. - (Reuters)