Bunia leadership wrangles continue

The leadership wrangles in the ruling movement based in the northeastern DRC city of Bunia appear to be widening with a rival faction vowing to dislodge the embattled leader, Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba. Over the last two weeks, Bunia has been rocked by fighting pitting Wamba, who leads the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML), against his former deputies, Mbusa Nyamwisi and Tibasiima Ateenyi, who are seeking to oust him. At least 40 people have been killed in the violence. The two say “it is finished” for Wamba and his leadership of the movement is “history”, a notion which Uganda’s presidential adviser on Congo, Colonel Kahinda Otafiire, termed as “nonsense”. “We shall see,” he told IRIN on Wednesday. Uganda is attempting to broker a meeting in Kampala between the rival factions and Nyamwisi told IRIN his presence in the Ugandan capital was to “help pull Wamba out of Bunia”. [For full story, see separate IRIN item of 22 November headlined “DRC: Cracks widen in Bunia-based group”].