DRC allies warn Rwanda to withdraw

President Laurent-Desire Kabila and his military allies on Friday told Rwanda its troops in the DRC faced a major assault if they failed to withdraw from an “eastern town”, AFP reported. The warning was issued by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who had joined Kabila and another of his regional supporters, Namibian leader, Sam Nujoma, for a summit in Kinshasa in the wake of a failed peace-making session in Gabon. “If Rwandan troops do not pull back to positions agreed by the belligerent parties on 6 December in Harare, the allies will use all means at their disposal to recapture the town of Pweto in Katanga province,” Mugabe said.

Fierce fighting erupted last month in Katanga between the DRC government and its allies on one hand, and the Goma-based rebels of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) on the other. Hundreds of people have been displaced in the area as a result, forcing some to cross into the Zambian territory, including soldiers from the government side.