Fighting still reported as new ceasefire date arrives

The leader of the rebel Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC), Jean Pierre Bemba, said on Friday he could not observe the ceasefire due to take effect on Friday between the Kinshasa government and its allies on the one hand, and the Ugandan- and Rwandan-backed Congolese rebels on the other, because government troops were still attacking his positions in Imesse and along the banks of the River Oubangi in Equateur Province.
Fighting was continuing in these areas on Friday even as the midnight deadline to cease fire approached, he said. "They attacked from the Congo-Brazzaville [Republic of Congo] side," he said. "The attack on Imesse was launched by three battalions from three different axes, through land and water," Bemba told IRIN. "In the lake, they have mounted a ship - which belongs to a timber company in Kinshasa - that is releasing rocket
grenades. Here there is no ceasefire because it is my duty to defend my people," Bemba said. There was no independent confirmation of the fighting.