Follow-up committee urges RCD-Goma to withdraw from Lubero

A team of international observers of the transitional process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has condemned Thursday's capture of the eastern town of Lubero by the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement. "The International Committee to Accompany the Transition calls on RCD-Goma to order an immediate halt to its offensive and to begin the withdrawal of its forces from Lubero," the team of international observers said in a statement issued in the DRC capital, Kinshasa. Humanitarian sources and the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, reported that Lubero had been deserted of its 180,000 residents. The fate of Butembo, a town of some 500,000 people 52 km north of Lubero, as well as 110,000 displaced persons from Ituri currently seeking refuge in the Beni region, 100 km north of Lubero, was increasingly uncertain with the latest advance of RCD-Goma, humanitarian sources reported. The Lubero takeover occurred as ceasefire negotiations for the North Kivu region were taking place in Bujumbura, Burundi. Despite the fighting, RCD-Goma and its rival RCD-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K/ML) signed a ceasefire agreement, after a day of negotiations presided over by MONUC. The committee comprises foreign ambassadors accredited to the DRC, meeting under the presidency of MONUC head Amos Namanga Ngongi. The committee said that the magnitude of displacement of civilian populations and the particularly worrying humanitarian situation underlined the urgency of RCD-Goma's retreat and its political willingness to reach a "negotiated and definitive solution" to hostilities.