RCD-Goma claims to repel Kinshasa/Mayi-Mayi assault on Kindu

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement has announced that its fighters repelled a pre-dawn attack by government troops and their allies on Kindu in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

AP reported that an estimated 800 government soldiers and their Mayi-Mayi allies were expelled from the airport and town on Saturday. The day-long occupation resulted in the deaths of at least 11 Mayi-Mayi fighters. Some government army officers were reportedly captured, two civilians were killed in crossfire and one RCD soldier was seriously injured, RCD spokesman Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga told AP on Sunday.

"This is the worst escalation of the war since March this year when all parties disengaged from frontline positions," he was quoted as telling Reuters.

Kindu, with about 300,000 inhabitants, is the main town in Maniema province and home to the DRC's third-largest airport. The town lies on the Congo river, about 400 km west of the RCD's headquarters in Goma, on the Rwandan border, AFP noted. Reuters reported the RCD as saying the fall of Kindu would pose a direct threat to their control of two major cities, Goma and Kisangani, the latter being the DRC's third-largest. Rwanda said it was concerned that the escalation of fighting could threaten efforts to end three years of war.

"We shall spare no efforts to have forces occupying other parties' positions in violation of the [Lusaka] ceasefire deal quit," Patrick Mazimhaka, the Rwandan special envoy for the DRC was quoted as telling Reuters on Sunday.

Meanwhile, fighting is reportedly continuing in Fizi, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in South Kivu province, where earlier this month, a coalition of Burundian and Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie and the Interahamwe together with Mayi-Mayi militias allegedly supported by the Congolese army captured the town.

In a statement released on Friday, the RCD accused the DRC government of violating the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement and demanded the immediate withdrawal of its troops and allies from Fizi. RCD warned that failure to do so would obligate them to launch a military offensive, thereby jeopardising the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue due to begin on 15 October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.