Fighting between army and rebels leaves at least 13 dead in Mindouli

At least 13 people were killed on Wednesday in Mindouli, in the southwest of the Pool region of the Republic of Congo, when a gunfight erupted between the army and "Ninja" militiamen, government spokesman Alain Akouala Atipault said at a news conference. "This is not a return to war in the department of Pool, nor a Ninja attack on a train. It was simply an incident," he said on Thursday in the nation’s capital, Brazzaville. Mindouli, about 137 km west of Brazzaville, is a stopping point for the national train line, the Chemin de fer Congo-ocean, which links the nation’s political capital to its coastal economic capital, Pointe-Noire. Akouala said the fighting broke out following an argument between Ninja militiamen and government soldiers when the Ninjas tried to load agricultural products onto the train to be transported to Brazzaville for sale. A railway official told the militiamen that they were not allowed to put their goods on the train. The Ninjas responded by firing in the air, at which point government soldiers intervened. When the gunfight ended five civilians, one government soldier, and seven Ninjas were dead. "Calm was restored in Mindouli and the train continued on its way to Brazzaville," Akouala said. He called the confrontation "a bit of residual banditry" that had persisted in this area of Pool. Nevertheless, it was the most serious incident to have occurred since the signing of a peace accord on 17 March between the government and "Ninja" rebels of Rev Frederic Bitsangou, alias Pasteur Ntoumi, which ended a year of hostilities. Tens of thousands of people fled the region, while fighting trapped many more.