Fighting in Equateur Province escalates

The Ugandan-backed Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC) has vowed to recapture the towns of Dongo and Imese in Equateur Province in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)if government troops do not withdraw. “At the last Lusaka summit, which was attended by all the regional heads of state, we requested Kabila to withdraw his troops from Imese and Dongo, because, under the Kampala disengagement plan agreed on by all the warring parties, both towns were to remain in our hands. The front line is now closer to Dongo, and the Kabila government has reacted by carrying out air raids in areas around the Ubangi river, forcing more than 70,000 refugees to flee to the Central African Republic and Congo Brazzaville,” the secretary-general of the MLC, Olivier Kamitatu, told IRIN on Tuesday. Fighting between Congolese troops and the Ugandan backed MLC has escalated in the last one month.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the MLC and the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) are to meet in the eastern Congolese town of Goma, the site of the RCD headquarters, in a fortnight’s time to coordinate their strategy against the Congolese government. “The meeting due to be held later this month will be a follow-up of the meeting held in Gbadolite, where it was agreed that the two movements would cooperate on both political and military matters.
The Goma meeting will discuss the administration of all the rebel-held territories to determine who controls which with a view to facilitating the free movement of people and goods. It is only Congolese who can unite themselves. We do not need outsiders to unite us,” said Olivier Kamitatu.
Moves by Uganda and Rwanda to unite the three Congolese rebel groups failed after troops of the two countries fought in the northeastern Congolese town of Kisangani.