Renewed clashes in Kisangani

Fresh fighting broke out between Ugandan and Rwandan troops in the northeastern Congolese town of Kisangani on Tuesday, despite the demilitarisation accord reached between them and a UN Security Council delegation on Monday, according to military sources on both sides. “The Ugandans started shelling our positions from 1am to dawn today. This was done despite the ceasefire agreed upon with them,” Rwandan military spokesman Major Emmanuel Ndahiro told IRIN. The Ugandans, for their part, claimed that the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) had advanced from Lubuto Junction to attack Ugandan positions near Bangoka Airport. “As they approached the valley just below the runway, they opened fire ... Now they are saying we are the ones [who started it]. I don’t understand this,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ugandan commander Major-General Jeje Odongo as saying. Military observers of the UN Observer Mission in the DRC (MONUC) were trying to verify reports about the situation, they said.

The two countries’ forces clashed throughout Friday, with news organisations reporting 15 to 20 civilian dead. Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda on Saturday ordered their forces to cease fire, and on

Monday settled on an agreement to demilitarise Kisangani city, its environs and the airport. A press statement issued after a meeting between Museveni and US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke - who was leading a UN Security Council delegation to the region to assess the DRC situation - and in which with Kagame took part via telephone, said the two sides had agreed to withdraw their troops from Kisangani “to a distance to be agreed between them in detailed negotiations to be held without delay.” Negotiations would be held in conjunction with MONUC and the Joint Military Commission (JMC) established under last year’s Lusaka ceasefire agreement, the statement added.