Fighting rages in Equateur

Fighting is raging in Equateur province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local sources told IRIN, with the Kinshasa government and the rebel Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC) trading accusations over ceasefire violations. MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba on Wednesday blamed the war situation and the crisis in the country on President Laurent-Desire Kabila’s refusal to accept the Lusaka accord. “Kabila has never stopped fighting,” Bemba told IRIN. “What is he doing in Dongo and Imese?” He has never stopped bombarding our positions everywhere along the River Congo and Ubangi,” he said.

Bemba said his troops had acted in “self-defence”. “What is he crying for? Kabila is responsible for the fighting in Congo,” Bemba reiterated. “He must go back and accept the Lusaka agreement because it is the only way to end the country’s crisis,” he said. An official of DRC’s defence ministry, David Kokolo Longo, was quoted by the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday as castigating MLC for violating the ceasefire, claiming that the rebel forces had occupied the town of Make in northern Equateur province earlier this week. Longo warned that the “Congolese Armed Forces will make use of their right of legitimate defence”.

DRC: Foreign Minister calls for amendment of Lusaka accord.
Congolese Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia on Tuesday demanded the immediate amendment of the Lusaka agreement in order to speed up the peace process. “If we follow the Lusaka peace agreement, it will be used by our oppressors to prolong their stay in our country,” the minister told a news conference on Tuesday after meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the capital Harare. The Congolese minister said the agreement should be amended to name Uganda and Rwanda as aggressors.

Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudege supported the call to amend the Lusaka agreement, signed by all warring parties in the DRC. “The peace agreement can be amended because we have already done that at some time,” the minister was quoted saying. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia support the DRC government while Uganda and Rwanda back rival Congolese rebel factions in the two year war.