RCD-Goma retake Uvira, thousands of civilians flee

Thousands of civilians continue to flee from the town of Uvira, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after a rebel group recaptured it on Saturday from pro-government Mayi-Mayi forces.

Forces of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) re-entered the town on Saturday after the Mayi-Mayi announced their withdrawal the previous night. The spokesman for the United Nations Mission in the DRC, Hamadoun Toure, said the militiamen had left voluntarily. "We did not see any trace of combat," he said.

"We wanted to save the peace and avoid massacres of civilians," Baudouin Makabaka, a Mayi-Mayi operations commander, told IRIN. RCD-Goma, by contrast, claims to have fought its way into the town, killing 40, wounding 100 and capturing 50 combatants.

Humanitarian sources said the recapture of Uvira had prompted nearly 5,000 inhabitants to flee across Lake Tanganyika towards the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, fearing retaliation by RCD-Goma forces. Other population movements have reportedly occurred towards southern Congolese towns.

While relative calm appears to have returned to Uvira, RCD-Goma troops are conducting house-to-house searches. The government has accused the RCD-Goma of killing scores of civilians during these operations. The Congolese commissioner-general to the peace process in the Great Lakes region, Vital Kamerhe, has said that 100 civilians have been killed.

Meanwhile, the RCD-Goma spokesman, Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, has said his movement is now ready to resume negotiations with the government that he suspended last week, accusing Kinshasa of supporting the Mayi-Mayi in their capture of Uvira last week. The Kinshasa government has denied any involvement in the attack.