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Rebels groups to establish bases in the east

    NAIROBI

    Two Congolese anti-government groups have agreed that their combined force set up to "aggressively track down" other marauding dissidents in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo will be based at Kalemie, Katanga Province, rebel-controlled radio reported on Friday.

    "The plans have been on since last year. At first they had wanted to establish it at Kindu [eastern DRC], but because the United Nations plans to set up an office in the area, the rebels decided to change to Kalemie," a diplomat in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, told IRIN.

    The combined battalion of 800 men is due to deploy before 25 February, the radio reported on Friday from Goma, eastern Congo. Agreement was also reached on the mechanism for a joint command of the battalion, whose leadership will alternate each month between the armed wings of two groups: the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), based in the northern town of Gbadolite.

    They reached the agreement on Wednesday at a meeting in the eastern border town of Goma, hosted by RCD-Goma and attended by a delegation from Jean-Pierre Bemba's MLC.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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