U.N. officials: Angolan troops fighting in Congo

GOMA, Congo–Angolan troops have joined Congolese soldiers battling rebels near the city of Goma, U.N. officials reported Friday, raising new fears the conflict will spread in the region as African leaders struggled to find a way to stop it.

GOMA, Congo–Angolan troops have joined Congolese soldiers battling rebels near the city of Goma, U.N. officials reported Friday, raising new fears the conflict will spread in the region as African leaders struggled to find a way to stop it. New clashes between army and rebels also erupted just outside Goma near Kibati, where about 45,000 refugees from the rebellion in mineral-rich eastern Congo have taken refuge. Thousands fled toward the relative safety of Goma. Congo asked Angola for political and military support on Oct. 29 as rebels led by Tutsi former general Laurent Nkunda advanced toward Goma, capital of North Kivu province near the border with Rwanda. Nkunda called a unilateral cease-fire last week when his forces reached the outskirts of the city, but the truce has crumbled amid persistent reports of fighting in the last few days. A U.N. official and a Uruguayan peacekeeping officer said Friday that an unspecified number of the Angolans troops arrived four days ago. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity. The involvement of the Angolans could escalate and spread the conflict beyond Congo’s borders. Neighboring Rwanda likely will consider the Angolan troops a provocation. Rwanda’s Tutsi-led government is accused of supporting the Congolese rebels. Congo’s 1998-2002 war drew in more than half a dozen African nations, including Angola and Rwanda, which profited from the vast country’s wealth of diamonds and other minerals. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, holding a peace summit in Nairobi, Kenya, with Congolese President Joseph Kabila and six other African leaders, warned the "crisis could engulf the broader sub-region." "We must put the cycle of violence behind us," Ban said. The Nairobi meeting was unlikely to achieve much, however, without the presence of rebels, who were not invited. Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa was dismissive, saying: "We expect nothing" from it. The government has refused direct talks with the rebels and Rwanda, which is believed to hold strong influence over Nkunda, says the crisis is an internal one. The conflict is fueled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in Rwanda. Nkunda claims he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu rebels who participated in the genocide and fled to Congo afterward. Violence, which has wracked eastern Congo for years, intensified since August and has since driven some 250,000 people from their homes. New York-based Human Rights Watch says at least 100 have died in the last two months. The latest fighting broke out Friday near the town of Kibati, six miles (10 kilometers) north of Goma. U.N. officials said the army fired mortars at rebels just north of Kibati and rebels responded with gunfire. Some bursts of distant machine-gun fire were audible in Goma. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the road south toward Goma was again lined with thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict. The U.N. refugee agency said the shooting lasted around 30 minutes, interrupted aid distributions and caused panic among the camp population. Congolese army officers told peacekeepers they planned to advance north of Kibati toward the town of Kibumba, according to a U.N. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Earlier Friday, an AP photographer saw a column of army soldiers with around 200 soldiers moving north of Kibati toward rebel lines, which are 2 kilometers (about a mile) to the north. Further north near Kiwanja, scene of fierce fighting earlier this week between rebels and a pro-government militia, thousands of refugees gathered outside the fenced compound of U.N. peacekeepers. The refugees complained peacekeepers gave them no protection when their town was attacked. The refugees, who are sleeping in the open amid daily tropical rainstorms, said they have not eaten since the fighting began Tuesday and have received no food, water or any other help from the peacekeepers. Human Rights Watch has criticized the U.N. peacekeeping force — known by its French acronym MONUC — for failing to protect civilians in places like Kiwanja, where at least 20 people were killed this week. A top African Union official echoed those comments Friday in Nairobi. "MONUC has failed," said Eddie Kwizera, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s top aide on relations with Congo. U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg said the over-stretched and undermanned force has fewer than 300 peacekeepers in the area around Kiwanja and nearby Rutshuru, a small town near Kiwanja that rebels seized last week. Rutshuru is about 45 miles (75 kilometers) north of Goma. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is also attending the Nairobi summit, said a day earlier the international community was needlessly diverting itself from the root cause of Congo’s insurgency. "They have been running away from the problem for reasons only known to them and claim that the solution lies upon my meeting with President Kabila. What have I to do with what is going on in the Congo?" Kagame asked. Bisimwa said the crisis was an internal Congolese one. "We want Kabila to come home and talk to us. The crisis is between Congolese belligerents and doesn’t affect foreign countries," he said. Kabila has refused the rebels’ call for direct talks despite an appeal for just that from Congo’s parliament. Also Friday, a U.N. official said several journalists who were in the conflict zone, including four foreigners, are missing or held hostage. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, the official said three or four journalists taken hostage by militiamen were handed over early Friday to Congolese army troops and U.N. peacekeepers are trying to reach them, the official said. Three other European reporters have been missing for 72 hours. Associated Press Writer Anita Powell and photographer Karel Prinsloo contributed to this report from Kiwanja, and photographer Jerome Delay from Kibumba. ______ Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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