Government forces, rebels clash in Ituri

Thirteen fighters have died in clashes between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) army and rebel Front Populaire pour la Justice au Congo (FPJC) militia in the north-eastern Ituri region, an army spokesman said.

"In Kagaba eight [militia] were killed, and four in Bukiringi," Captain Charles Boyeka, the spokesman for the Congolese army (FARDC) in Ituri, said on 7 October.

Kagaba and Bukiringi are near Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province.

One FARDC soldier was killed and two others injured during the fighting, Boyeka added. Another soldier had been killed on 5 October after an army post in Bule near Ituri was attacked by unidentified gunmen.

The fighting followed last week's decision by the DRC government to send reinforcements south of Bunia to repulse militia groups that had attacked and captured FARDC-controlled areas.

"We want to restore state authority and ensure security for the people and their belongings," Colonel Abdallah Nyembo, an army official in Ituri, said. The army, he added, was "making peace and development a priority".

The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in a 6 October statement decried the recent wave of violence in eastern DRC. It condemned "renewed violence, which has caused massive displacement of innocent civilian populations and created a fresh humanitarian crisis".

Attacks by Ugandan rebels have also exacerbated the situation. An estimated 17,000 civilians have been displaced after Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels attacked eight villages in Dungu in late-September.

We want to restore state authority and ensure security for the people and their belongings

Some of the displaced have sought refuge in Uganda and Sudan, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Security concerns had affected delivery of aid to the displaced, the agency said.

"We need to be assured of security before we can help them," Jean Charles Dupin, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Orientale Province, told IRIN.

The ICGLR said recent fighting had aggravated the fragile security situation in eastern DRC and "undermined the various regional and international initiatives aimed at searching for a durable situation".

It urged all signatories to the January Goma peace accord to respect their commitments and stop the violence.

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