Mayi-Mayi take Uvira from RCD-Goma, push towards Bukavu

Following two days of intense fighting, pro-government Mayi-Mayi militias captured the city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday from the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement.

"Since noon, Mayi-Mayi forces have held the port city of Uvira, and a few final gunshots of resistance have been fired by the RCD from the north of the city, towards Bukavu," Madnodje Mounoubai, the deputy spokesman for the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, told IRIN on Sunday.

"Our objective is to continue on to Bukavu and then Goma. We are going to chase the RCD from all the territory it controls," Paganura Katshwa, a Mayi-Mayi spokesman, told IRIN from Uvira on Sunday.

No reliable figures regarding the number of displaced, injured and killed are yet available.

The seizure of Uvira was the latest in a series of military setbacks for the RCD in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, and in the northern part of Katanga Province in the southeast.

Uvira, a city of some 130,000 inhabitants on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, is of strategic importance, as it will enable the Mayi-Mayi to channel in supplies from points in the DRC and Burundi, which borders the northeastern shore of the lake.

Media organisations reported that the Mayi-Mayi had received the support of fighters from the Kinshasa government, the Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsis), and a Burundian Hutu rebel group; Forces pour la defense de la democratie.

South Africa's facilitator in the DRC, Billy Masetlha, expressed concern on Sunday about these reports, which, he said, could impact negatively on the implementation of a peace deal signed by the DRC and Rwanda on 30 July in Pretoria, the South African news agency, SAPA, reported. "Quite clearly we need to condemn that," Masetlha said. "This [indications that the government was involved] is complicating matters. We will need to monitor the situation quite closely over the following days."

IRIN received reports on Monday of gunfire from the eastern Congolese city of Bukavu, some 125 km to the north of Uvira. While the situation in Bukavu remained unclear, IRIN was informed that Bukavu's independent Radio Maendeleo was not permitted to broadcast, having been occupied by forces of the RCD since early morning on Monday.

The resurgence of fighting has come just as the final withdrawal of foreign forces from the DRC is reaching its completion. Rwanda declared on 5 October that it had completed the withdrawal of its 23,760 troops. MONUC counted 20,941 as having left. The Rwandan military explained the shortfall of 2,819 soldiers as being due to leave, training and other assignments of its soldiers at the time of withdrawal. Kinshasa has asked MONUC to verify the locations of the missing troops.