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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Peacekeeper killed in DR Congo assault |
| 2010-04-05 |
| Dozens of unidentified fighters have attacked a provincial capital in northern Democratic Republic of Congo in a battle that has so far left one UN peacekeeper dead, UN officials say. At least 30 fighters believed to be part of a mushrooming ethnic conflict in the region crossed the Congo River by boat to Mbandaka, capital of Congo's northern Equateur province, attacking the governor's residence. They then took control of the city's airport in a surprise assault on Congolese and UN forces, a UN official said. "There is heavy fighting going on right now, especially around the airport," Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the UN mission MONUC, said by telephone. "There is one [peacekeeper] dead - Ghanaian." The Mbandaka assault is thought to be separate from an ongoing conflict between UN-backed forces and rebels in Congo's east and marks an escalation in the northern region, where violence erupted last year between ethnic groups over fishing access. "We think [the fighters] are the Enyele, a group that started fighting six months ago claiming fishing rights, but now they are far from their land and we don't know what they want," Mr Mounoubai said. More than 200,000 Congolese have fled their homes in Equateur in the past six months due to the violence between the Lobala and Boba tribesmen, said aid agency Refugees International. The Enyele are a sub-tribe of the Lobala. In Sunday's fighting, more than 100 troops from Congo's national army chased the rebels, who UN sources said numbered at least 30, out of town towards the airport where MONUC has aircraft stationed. UN peacekeepers stationed at the airport along with UN contractors at a fire station beside it - both 7 kilometres from the riverside governor's residence - retreated into the surrounding bush. Neither UN nor army sources could confirm if there were any civilians killed in the fighting, but sources in the area said hundreds were sheltering in churches after Easter Sunday services. |
| Posted by:Steve White |