Congolese soldiers a strain on Zambia

Zambian Defence Minister Chitalu Sampa on Wednesday said the task of feeding Congolese government soldiers who had fled fighting in Katanga Province earlier this week was a drain on his government’s resources. He said that soldiers of the Forces armees congolaises (FAC) had poured over the border into Zambia to avoid armed clashes in Pweto, southeastern DRC, over the previous two days, bringing their number in Zambia to about 3,500, the ‘Zambia Daily Mail’ reported on Thursday. All the soldiers had been disarmed by Zambian security forces and would be repatriated to the DRC at an appropriate time, he said. Since the UNHCR dealt only with refugees and not armed combatants, feeding the soldiers was “a big burden” for Zambia, Sampa added. The fighting in Pweto, in which a joint force of the RCD and Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) seized control of the town on Monday evening, followed an intensified campaign by the FAC, ex-FAR (former Rwandan army), Rwandan Interahamwe and Burundian rebel FDD on the Tanganyika front in Katanga Province in late October and early November, according to diplomatic sources. The Congolese government had initially denied involvement in the Katanga offensive, but later insisted that it had the right to support Congolese nationalist Mayi-Mayi militias to force the Rwandan army out of DRC sovereign territory, they added.