Zambia monitors border as bandits strike

Zambia has stepped up military patrols on its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after several raids by rebel bandits over the past few weeks.

Soldiers are currently escorting residents of the remote village of Kaputa back home after 47 of their huts were torched in a raid for food last week, Evans Chibiliti, permanent secretary of Zambia's northern Luapala province told IRIN on Wednesday.

Last week's attack followed the fatal shooting in July of one woman and the wounding of two others in the region, during a raid on their granaries.

Chibiliti said: "Any government wouldn't take this as business as usual. [Government was] taking active measures to prevent this from happening again."

However, Chibiliti stressed that the rebels were not DRC government troops, but "rogue elements" from rebel forces who had become separated from their commanders.

On 30 July DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame signed a peace accord to end the conflict in the DRC. The deal includes the disarming and rounding up of rebels and the withdrawal of Rwandan troops.

"As the political situation [the peace pact] gains momentum, there is a weakness of control in rebel areas. Then you have some stragglers who have lost contact with their central command, and these are the characters crossing over. They have been foraging for food which is indicative of inadequate rations," he said.

Chibiliti added that government representatives were currently in the area assessing security and the humanitarian situation of the families who lost their homes.