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The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement recaptured a strategic port of Lake Tanganyika on Wednesday from a coalition of Congolese Mayi-Mayi militiamen, Rwandan Hutu Interahamwe and soldiers of the Burundian Hutu Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), Reuters reported.
"Our forces flushed the enemy out of Kaziniya this morning without much resistance because the attack came as a surprise to the enemy who had been besieged for many days," Pierre Kisanga, an RCD spokesman, told Reuters. "The left in disarray toward Kigoma, Tanzania, aboard a ship they had seized from merchants, leaving many dead behind."
Mayi-Mayi militia spokesman Tambwe Muzuri told Reuters from Kinshasa that the RCD had captured the port.
For the past five months, Kaziniya, more than 500 km south of Bukavu in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), had been a stronghold of the Mayi-Mayi/Interahamwe/FDD coalition. The RCD claimed the port was a transit point for DRC-based Rwandan and Burundian rebels coming from southeastern Katanga province en route to attacking neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.
The offensive comes as the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was suspended due to lack of funding and arguments regarding representation. The talks are expected to resume in Durban, South Africa, in November.
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