DRC: Fighting resumes between army, rebels

(SomaliNet) In the latest clash between the fighters of a dissident warlord and the Congo’s army, rebels and security forces traded fire on Tuesday in lawless eastern Congo, , UN officials said.

Jean-Paul Dietrich, UN spokesperson said the clashes occurred in the village of Ntamugenga, where several rockets were fired, and near the villages of Rugaru and Rumangabo, where heavy artillery was used. The fighting stopped around noon local time, he said, but by evening the army was fighting the rebel group in a neighboring province.

According to Dietrich, five rebels and four soldiers had been killed.

For nearly two weeks, the army has been regularly fighting the militia of warlord Laurent Nkunda, whose rebellion began at the end of neighboring Rwanda\'s 1994 genocide.

Nkunda, an ethnic Tutsi, claims he is protecting Congo\'s Tutsi minority, which like Rwanda\'s Tutsi population became the target of extremist Hutus. The Hutus who perpetrated the genocide were chased out of Rwanda and into neighboring Congo from where they orchestrated attacks on Congolese Tutsis.

But Nkunda\'s men are also accused of atrocities, including using child soldiers, systematic rape and summary executions.

A January cease-fire laid out a plan for the rebels to withdraw from strategic areas, creating a buffer zone that would be monitored by UN peacekeepers. - Sapa-AP