Renewed fighting in Bunia

Heavy fighting broke out in the northeastern DRC town of Bunia on Friday morning, UN sources told IRIN. Fighters from the ethnic Lendu-Ngiti community attacked the town with heavy weapons around 05:00 local time, including the airport and radio station. The situation has since calmed down after a Ugandan military helicopter managed to open fire on Lendu positions. The renewed fighting between the rival Lendu and Hema communities in Ituri province - whose capital is Bunia - comes just after rebel leaders signed an agreement on forming a joint movement, the Congolese Liberation Front. The deal, brokered in Kampala, Uganda, names Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Gbadolite-based Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) as president of the new group, with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba of the Bunia-based Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) as his deputy. Wamba however has refused to sign the accord which effectively "demotes" him, local observers said. Analysts believe the renewed fighting in Bunia is an attempt to take advantage of the confusion currently reigning in the DRC following the assassination of President Laurent-Desire Kabila in Kinshasa and the formation of the Congolese Liberation Front. The Lendu are believed to have formed an alliance with Mayi-Mayi fighters, Rwandan Interahamwe militia and rebels of the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Meanwhile, MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba accused Zimbabwean troops, backing DRC government forces, of dropping six bombs from an Antonov plane on the town of Basankusu in the northwestern Equateur province overnight. "This is very dangerous, we hope that it is an accident," Bemba said. His claims have not been independently confirmed.