Fighting displaces 10,000 in Ituri

At least 10,000 people have now been displaced as the Congolese army intensifies its offensive to disarm rebels in the northeastern district of Ituri, a United Nations humanitarian official has said. "The displaced are scattered in several small groups, which we could easily identify by helicopter, between five and ten kilometres west of Tcheyi," Modibo Traoré, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ituri, said on Wednesday in Bunia, the district's capital. He said humanitarian officials had been unable to reach the displaced due to continued fighting. Thousands of people began streaming out of their homes two weeks ago when close to 2,000 government troops, backed by 500 UN peacekeepers, launched a drive to disarm all irregular forces ahead of general elections set for 30 July. The two allied armed groups trying to resist the army's push are the Front de Resistance Patriotique en Ituri, and the Mouvement revolutionnaire congolais, which comprises fighters from various armed militia groups that have disbanded. Up until recently, these movements had reigned supreme in the area due to the absence of government authority. This latest round of fighting has been in the community of Walendu Bindi; between Bunia and the southern end of Lake Albert, on the border with Uganda. The army says it has already recaptured "several localities" such as Tchekele, Aveba, Kabona Bunga and Tcheyi, beween 70 km and 100 km south of Bunia. "We have pushed them back a long way; they have suffered heavy losses," Capt Olivier Mputu, the army liaison officer and spokesman in Ituri, said on Thursday. He said the army had counted 53 rebel dead. The army had seven dead and 11 wounded. He said the rebels were preventing the displaced from returning to their villages. Just seven people were left in the mountain village of Tcheyi, which the army seized on Saturday. "They are women and sick people who could not flee the village," Traoré said. He said the rebels attempted on Tuesday to retake Tcheyi, which had served as their headquarters in the region. For years, various militia groups have fought for control of the mineral-rich Ituri, causing the deaths of at least 50,000 people since the late 1990s and the displacement of hundreds of thousands others. Full government authority has been lacking in the district since the establishment of a transitional government in 2003, mostly due to continued militia activity. [32 rebels, five soldiers killed in northeast, army says]