DRC

Fresh fighting in North-Kivu as Nkunda's troops dismiss Nairobi summit

Article published on the 2008-11-07 Latest update 2008-11-07 18:20 TU

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki (L) speaks with President Joseph Kabila (2nd L) as Congo Republic's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete (R) look on.
(Photo: Reuters)

Fresh fighting occured on Friday between the rebels of Laurent Nkunda and the DRC armed forces. Clashes took place about 15 kilometres north of Goma as the UN mission in the DRC, Monuc, used helicopters to try and contain the fighting. Congolese troops told Monuc that they had responded to fire from rebel forces.

Thousands of people fled from refugee camps when the fighting began.

The rebels, led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, on Friday said Angolan troops were fighting alongside the Congolese armed forces, north of Goma, North-Kivu's capital. Nkunda's CNDP alleged that "Angolan soldiers" were wearing the uniform of Congo's army but were identifiable as Portugese speakers.

There has been no independant confirmation of the claims.

The rebels also said Friday's Nairobi summit was "for nothing" saying that "the Congolese have not seen their problems settled". The meeting in Nairobi called for "an immediate ceasefire" in North-Kivu. President Joseph Kabila of the DRC and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame attended the meeting, which also called for the respect of existing agreements.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the current fighting could extend to a wider area in the Great Lakes region, telling heads of state that a solution could only be found "on a political level".

Carina Tertsakian of Global Witness says "all the different warring parties are profiting" from trade in minerals. She explains that sales of minerals are allowing groups to finance the fighting. "The most important (mineral) in that region is ... tin ore. The other minerals that you find in that area are Coltan, which is used in electronics (...) and there are also gold mines. These minerals are ending up all over the world including in European countries, in North America, in Asia and elsewhere".

 

"We're calling on the parties to these talks, and particularly on the mediators (...) to include on the agenda for these talks, the question of the economic dimension of the conflict." she said."We believe that if the economic agendas of the warring parties are not adressed, then long-term solutions are not going to be found."