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2005-12-27 Africa Subsaharan

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Posted by Fred 2005-12-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 India is replacing the Guards regiment they have in Congo with the 9th Paratroops regiment.
Looks like they expect more fighting. During the last deployment they sent additional IAF helicopter gunships.

Posted by john 2005-12-27 07:15|| 2005-12-27 07:15|| Front Page Top

#2 One of the Ugandan rebel groups in the ADF is called the "Salaf Tabliq".
They appear to be Wahabi jihadist extremists.

Posted by john 2005-12-27 07:20|| 2005-12-27 07:20|| Front Page Top

#3 DR Congo army says Ugandan rebel bases crushed
AFP
27 dec. 05 - 16.36h
GOMA, DR Congo, Dec 27 (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo army said Tuesday it had overrun Mwalika, the last stronghold of Ugandan rebels based in the east of the DRC.

"Mwalika fell at about 6:00 am (0400 GMT)," FARDC (Congolese army) General Eugene Mbuy told AFP.

"The fighting began yesterday. There was resistance but we can say we now control the situation in the whole zone of operations," he said.

Since Saturday, some 3,500 FARDC troops supported by an Indian contingent of 600 men from the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) have attacked the rebel Allied Democratic Front/ National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF/NALU).

Mbuy said he knew of 54 rebels killed, six DRC soldiers killed and 16 wounded, and one Indian UN soldier killed and four injured since Saturday.

He had no specific casualties from the overnight battle for Mwalika, which was the headquarters of the rebels.

Mbuy is based in Goma, the chief town of the DRC's Nord-Kivu province on the border with Rwanda and Uganda.

Uganda has been urging the DRC government in Kinshasa to wipe out the rebels, threatening to send its own troops back into the vast central African country otherwise.

MONUC, which is the world's largest peacekeeping operation with more than 18,600 personnel, is helping the DRC through a transition to national unity and democracy after a 1998-2003 war that drew in the armies of half a dozen other African countries, including Uganda, on rival sides.

UN troops serving as part of MONUC have in the past year taken offensive action alongside DRC soldiers to crush militia forces and private armies still active in the volatile east of Africa's second largest nation, under a tough UN Security Council mandate allowing them to do so under specified conditions.

When the Christmas offensive hit the headlines with the killing of an Indian soldier in an ambush by the Ugandan rebels, a MONUC military spokeman said the UN troops had gone in to support the FARDC because the Ugandan rebels had rejected amnesty, disarmament and repatriation offers.

The UN also said the ADF/NALU was terrorising local residents in the region as well as being engaged in various kinds of illicit traffic. It estimated the total number of Ugandan rebels at about 1,500, while the DRC army said there were between 2,500 and 3,000 of them.

Posted by john 2005-12-27 20:40|| 2005-12-27 20:40|| Front Page Top

#4 UN pursuing rebels in DR Congo
BBC News
27 dec. 05 - 13.58h
Fighting is continuing in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between Ugandan rebels and Congolese forces backed by United Nations troops.
The UN, which has 600 soldiers in the region, says the rebels are on the run.

About 40 people have died in the most recent fighting, including an Indian UN peacekeeper and three Congolese troops.

The fighting began when the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group launched a counter-attack against the Congolese and UN soldiers in North Kivu province.

"It's an ongoing operation, the Ugandan rebels are in full flight," UN military spokesman Major Hans-Jakob Reichen told Reuters news agency.

The UN says its operation in the area seeks to bring security to people harassed by hundreds of militiamen.

The operation in the region, known as North Night Final, involves 3,500 Congolese troops, supported by 600 UN peacekeepers using helicopter gunships.

Posted by john 2005-12-27 20:44|| 2005-12-27 20:44|| Front Page Top

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