April 3, 2000
Kigali, Rwanda - As Congo slides back into war, Congolese rebels on Sunday said they had killed at least 20 government troops in fresh attacks by President Laurent Kabila's army.
Rebel spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba said the Rwandan-backed rebels had fought off government attacks at Maloba and Kisele in southern, diamond-rich Kasai Province, killing 17 soldiers and capturing one. The fighting last week also left five rebels wounded, two of them in critical condition in a hospital in the eastern rebel stronghold of Goma. "We're fighting every day. There is no cease-fire,'' Mulumba said on telephone from Goma.
Despite a peace accord last August between Kabila and the rebels, fighting has resumed in Congo, frustrating efforts by the United Nations to deploy 5,500 U.N. cease-fire observers and troops to protect them. So far, more than 100 U.N. observers have been deployed in both government-and rebel-controlled Congo. But U.N. officials have warned that additional deployment will not be possible unless fighting ends.
The peace accord was signed by rebel supporters Rwanda and Uganda, as well as Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, who back Kabila. According to the deal, a cease-fire is supposed to be followed by the withdrawal of foreign troops from Congo and the disarmament of Rwandan and Burundian Hutu militia fighting alongside Kabila's army.
Kabila was expected Monday at an African-European summit in Cairo, together with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos. African and European foreign ministers meeting before the summit agreed that there would be no specific mention of Africa's various conflicts, although they did agree to promote conflict resolution.
Mulumba also said that government forces or their Zimbabwean allies had dropped nine bombs on rebel positions around Ikela, 435 miles east of the capital of Kinshasa. The rebels, backed by Rwandan troops, had been fighting there to regain positions they lost last month.
The leader of the Congolese Liberation Movement, which is backed by Uganda and fighting in northern Congo, said government forces tried last week but failed to take Zongo, on the border with Central African Republic. Thirteen soldiers and six rebels were killed, said Jean-Pierre Bemba. There was no independent confirmation of rebel claims.
Meanwhile, aid workers and U.N. officials reported renewed ethnic tensions in South Kivu Province, where they said the ethnic Tutsi community there had come under attack by a pro-government militia, known as Mai-Mai. The Mai-Mai are reportedly supplied by Zimbabwean arms and troops. Details on possible deaths or injuries were unknown.
