Militia forces capture Epulu, Mambasa

Congolese militia forces led by Jean-Pierre Bemba and Roger Lumbala took control on Sunday of the towns of Epulu and Mambasa in Orientale Province in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Bemba heads the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) and Lumbala the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-National (RCD-N).

The territories their forces now occupy in Orientale had been under the control of Mbusa Nyamwisi's Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML), Kolosso Sumahili, the movement's secretary-general, told IRIN.

The United Nations Mission in the DRC, known has MONUC, confirmed these takeovers on Monday.

The three rebel factions in this region of the DRC are all supported by neighbouring Uganda.

MONUC and RCD-K-ML said that the troops of the MLC and RCD-N were advancing towards the city of Beni in the north of North Kivu Province in eastern DRC.

Humanitarian sources in the region told IRIN that thousands of people throughout the region were being displaced, and that a concerted effort on the part of NGOs and UN agencies was needed to save the lives of vulnerable people, many of them exhausted and hungry following days of fleeing on foot. One NGO told IRIN that it feared that more than 90 percent of the populations of the towns of Komanda and Nyankunde had been displaced.

Meanwhile, Uganda has reportedly sent a team of experts to the DRC border to assess a looming humanitarian crisis caused by an influx of hundreds of Congolese refugees fleeing clashes, The East African weekly newspaper, based in Nairobi, reported on Monday. It added that Ugandan Minister for Disaster Preparedness Helen Amongin Aporu had said last week that the refugees were entering Uganda at several points including Nebbi in the northwest, Lake Albert and the western Uganda customs post of Mpondwe. Others were crossing into the country through Bundibugyo District, 300 km southwest of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

MONUC said on Monday it deplored this resurgence of violence at a time when all foreign armies were completing their withdrawals from the DRC.

In addition to the MLC and RCD-N, MONUC singled out for criticism RCD-K-ML and the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), a dissident faction of RCD-K-ML led by Thomas Lubanga.

"The forces of the UPC are reinforcing their positions around Bunia [in northeastern DRC], from where we have received reports of continued fighting between the UPC on one side and the Lendu [people] and RCD-K-ML on the other," MONUC said on Monday in a communique.

"If this continues, it could have disastrous consequences for the peace process, but we hope that, with the cooperation of all parties, it will not come to that," said Amos Namanga Ngongi, head of MONUC and Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the DRC.

MONUC called on all parties to cease hostilities immediately, and reiterated its willingness to help restore dialogue among the belligerents.