UN mission condemns renewed fighting in Ituri

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known by its French acronym MONUC, has condemned the recent fighting in Ituri District of the northeastern province of Orientale.

"The fighting allegedly left 18 dead, including 27 FNI [Front des nationalistes et integrationnistes] members and 14 FAPC [Forces armees du peuple congolais] members and four civilians," Maj Abou Thiam, the MONUC military spokesman, told IRIN on Friday.

However, tension in Ituri had been "substantially reduced since the beginning of the week," said MONUC's spokeswoman in Bunia, Rachel Eklou, on Friday.

Thiam said the commanders of the 10th Military Region in South Kivu Province had reported that fighting had taken place between government forces and dissident soldiers loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda.

At beginning of June, forces loyal to Nkunda and Col Jules Mutebutsi staged a weeklong occupation of the South Kivu capital, Bukavu. The resulting insecurity forced many humanitarian organisations to temporarily suspend operations in the region, and caused a mass exodus of thousands of Congolese refugees to neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.

Thiam also reported that MONUC had sent a special liaison patrol to Minova, near Goma, to make contact with Nkunda and question him regarding allegations of "child recruitment, tax deductions for war effort, the putting in place of a parallel administration and bellicose inclinations towards Bukavu", all of which Nkunda had denied.

On that occasion Nkunda was also warned that MONUC would use "appropriate retaliatory action" in the event of any new attack on Bukavu, Thiam said.