RCD rebels deny mounting offensive

Rebels of the Goma-based Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) have denied reports that their forces have launched a major offensive on government supply lines near the border with Zambia. “There are no military operations going on in the reported area,” the German news agency (dpa) on Monday quoted Adolphe Onusumba, the RCD-Goma leader, as saying. He told the agency that there had been no rebel advance by his forces and their Rwandan allies on Muliro town or Kilwa Island on Lake Mweru. “The only operations taking place are just mopping-up activities aimed at securing areas under our control and to protect the civilian population from killings by [President Laurent-Desire] Kabila’s troops,” he told the agency. Onusumba also accused government troops of massacring about 50 people in Kasai Province after RCD forces withdrew 15 km back from their positions in accordance with the agreement signed in Kampala in April, according to dpa.

Meanwhile, AFP on Monday quoted a source from the general staff in Kinshasa as saying that the town of Pweto, reportedly captured by RCD forces and their Rwandan allies on 4 December was “in the hands of Kabila and his allies”. However, this assertion was denied to IRIN on Tuesday by Bizima Karaha, RCD-Goma’s head of security.