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News update -- 3 June 2004 bulletin

Crisis in Bukavu

• 1 DRC-RWANDA: Fighting breaks out in Bukavu 27-May
• 2 DRC-RWANDA: Bukavu crisis task force set up 31-May
• 3 DRC: Foreign minister arrives in embattled area 1 June
• 4 DRC: Ceasefire agreement signed and broken in Bukavu 2 June
• 5 News from David Boyd (former CMS missionary in DRC) 3 June

items 1-4 are news from U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

1 DRC-RWANDA: Fighting breaks out in Bukavu

KIGALI, 27 May (IRIN) - Two people were killed on Wednesday after fighting broke out in the eastern town of Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between soldiers loyal to the Kinshasa government and renegade soldiers of a former Rwandan-backed rebel group in the country, a UN official told IRIN on Thursday.

The public information officer for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Sebastien Lapierre, said in Bukavu that the two, who were in military fatigues, had been found dead in a market in central Bukavu late on Wednesday. He said a civilian was also seriously wounded.

"I presume that the number of casualties could be bigger as heavy gunfire is still going on. We have had several reports of civilians wounded by stray bullets," he said. "There's a lot of sporadic shooting at the moment and the population has kept indoors."

Business in the town has ground to a halt as a result of the fighting, which began on Wednesday night.

In Kinshasa, the DRC capital, the MONUC spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, said: "The fighting in Bukavu broke out when fighters under the command of Mbuza Mabe Nkumu took on a group of fighters loyal to Col Jules Mutebusi, a former RCD-Goma [Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma] regional commander who was trying to go to Rwanda."

Mutebusi's fighters were formerly loyal to RCD-Goma, which has since joined the transitional government installed in Kinshasa in June 2003.

In Bukavu, Mutebusi accused his "enemies" of attempting to arrest, disarm and take him to Kinshasa. "I am defending myself, because the Kinshasa soldiers brought here want to kidnap me and hand me over to Kinshasa," Mutebusi said. "I do not want to be killed in Kinshasa."

Lapierre said the UN was trying to contact both sides in an attempt to get them agree to a ceasefire.

Regional military commanders have been appointed by the DRC government as part of efforts to unify the troubled vast Central African nation, but the move has met with resistance from renegade rebel soldiers reluctant to relinquish their previous positions.

[ENDS]

2 DRC-RWANDA: Bukavu crisis task force set up

CYANGUGU (RWANDA), 31 May (IRIN) - The UN Relief/Humanitarian Coordinator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Herbert M'Cleod, has set up an inter-agency Crisis Task Force for the eastern town of Bukavu where fighting between rival factions of the Congolese army erupted on Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

"The task force will interface with the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and will undertake an evaluation of the humanitarian needs in Bukavu as soon as security permits safe and unhindered access," OCHA said in a report of the current situation in the town.

The task force comprises OCHA, Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator, the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) and one representative of NGOs.

OCHA said Bukavu's immediate needs were that civilians be protected, that electricity and water supplies be restored, and that corpses get collected before they pose a health hazard.

Thousands of civilians displaced in the fighting have fled into the Rwandan province of Cyangugu, on the border with the DRC, with many saying they fear to return to their homes.

A field officer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cyangugu, Jeremy Nsengiyumva, told IRIN on Monday that up to 2,500 people had fled into Rwanda since the fighting broke out.

Some of the refugees, mainly the Tutsi-speaking Banyamulenge Congolese, told IRIN the situation in Bukavu remained tense and that the fighting was likely to continue.

"There's a lot of mistrust between the different ethnic groups in Bukavu," Wellars Nzabona, a Congolese shop owner who fled into Rwanda, told IRIN. "There have been house-to-house searches for the Banyamulenge with the intention of finishing us."

The Banyamulenge have the same ethnic origins as Rwanda's minority Tutsis. Many Banyamulenge speak Tutsi and some Congolese do not consider them as nationals of the DRC.

According to the displaced Bukavu residents, people desperate to flee the town have sought refuge in the bush while they plan their escape but many more are stuck in their homes.

Officials of aid agencies, whose staff pulled out Bukavu at the weekend at the height of the fighting, said there had been reports of the army factions killing some villagers who attempted to flee.

Those who fled into Rwanda safely are grouped on a hilltop, allocated to them by the UNHCR, where tents have been pitched to protect them from the cold. So far, up to 703 refugees have started receiving food aid and non-food items.

However, many more of the displaced have sought refuge with their relatives in Rwanda, Nsengiyumva said on Monday.

"We are trying to sensitise them to come to the camp where we will be able to assist them," he said. "We have all the necessary logistics to deal with the situations, and at the moment everything is under control."

[ENDS]

3 DRC: Foreign minister arrives in embattled area

KINSHASA, 1 June (IRIN) - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda, heading a government delegation, arrived in the eastern town of Bukavu on Tuesday, shortly before fighting resumed between rival army factions.

"We have come to support the city's residents and restore government authority," he told IRIN from the town.

He said the absence of central government authority had created a political vacuum in the city, in South Kivu Province, and this had brought about the breakdown on law and order.

Fighting first broke out in Bukavu on 26 May, when regular government troops under the commander of the 10th Military Region, Mbuza Mabe Nkumu, tried to stop fighters loyal to Col Jules Mutebusi, from crossing into Rwanda. Before being absorbed into the new unified DRC army as the deputy commander of the 10th military region, Mutebusi was a regional commander with the former rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma.

The 26 May fighting had also spread to Nguba, Ruzizi I, College al-Fajiri and Nyawera districts, UN News reported on Friday.

On Monday, Mabe's men were reinforced by troops loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda in Goma, a town about 120 km northeast of Bukavu. The composition and size of the reinforcements were not immediately known.

"We have not yet been able to verify this, but from the information available to us, there are 150 foreign officers who neither speak Swahili nor any Congolese language," Ghonda said.

He added that on Thursday, while in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on an official visit, he had told government officials there that it would be unhelpful if Rwanda were to intervene in a dispute that was solely within the DRC army.

Rwandan troops withdrew from the DRC in October 2002.

After a brief truce, fighting resumed on Tuesday northwest of Kavumu airport, some 30 km from Bukavu.

However, the rebel troops announced that they had halted their advance on Bukavu at the orders of DRC Vice-President Azarias Ruberwa, who is in charge of the country's political commission, defence and security.

The DRC Red Cross in Bukavu says at least 39 people have died since the fighting started on 26 May. The head of the Red Cross in Bukavu, Leon Mbalabala, said that the verified dead comprised two children, 16 civilians and 21 combatants. He added that 81 wounded people had been taken to hospitals and health centres, and that 650 internally displaced persons had been registered.

He said, however, that the Red Cross had not yet had access the suburb of Nguba, where fighting had been intense during the first three days.

Meanwhile, Ruberwa has been stuck in Goma since Sunday, unable to reach Bukavu. The presidential spokesman, Kudura Kasongo, said Ruberwa and his delegation were under orders from the defence ministry and the armed forces chief of staff to work with local authorities towards re-establishing public order.

[ENDS]

4 DRC: Ceasefire agreement signed and broken in Bukavu

KINSHASA, 2 June (IRIN) - The ceasefire signed by rival army groups, under the aegis of the Mission of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) in the eastern town of Bukavu, was broken on Wednesday morning, MONUC reported.

The accord had been signed by Gen Mbuza Mabe, the commander of the 10th Military Region of the DRC army, who is responsible for Bukavu, and dissidents of the same army who were members of a faction of the former rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma, led by Gen Laurent Nkunda and Col Jules Mutebuzi.

According to the MONUC chief of staff, Col Clive Mantell, "Nkunda's men broke the ceasefire this morning [at a point] 15 km north of Bukavu, and are marching towards the town, which is under the control of government forces", despite declarations by Nkunda, who says he controls Bukavu.

The ongoing insecurity has prompted 550 civilians to seek refuge within the MONUC headquarters, where they are receiving food and water.

"There is a lot of confusion right now, the insurgents are entering the town, the government troops are fleeing, and the town is being looted," Lucia Alberghini, the representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bukavu, said on Wednesday afternoon.

An emergency task force comprising various UN agencies operating in the sector has been established. Power, which had been cut, has been restored in parts of the city, and hospitals are still operating, according to Alberghini. However, insecurity is impeding the assessment of humanitarian needs, and the progress of the insurgents is preventing the population from gaining access to humanitarian assistance.

Another 10 people have been wounded, bringing to 103 the total number of people wounded since the fighting started a week ago, according to the DRC Red Cross. On Monday, it reported a total of 39 deaths, comprising 18 civilians and 21 soldiers, before the fighting resumed Wednesday morning.

Mutebuzi, the former second-in-command of the 10th Military Region, leads the dissidents. They have been reinforced by troops from Goma, about 100 km northeast of Bukavu, led by Nkunda. Both claim to be defending members of their Banyamulenge ethnic group - Congolese of Tutsi origin - who, they say, have been the target of violence. They estimate that more than 2,000 Banyamulenge have crossed the border to seek refuge in Rwanda since the fighting first flared up.

The ceasefire, which has now been broken, was agreed on to allow for an international investigation into the alleged abuses suffered by the Banyamulenge people.

In a statement released in the capital, Kinshasa, the command of the DRC army gave assurances that the Banyamulenge were guaranteed army protection on an equal footing with all other ethnic groups in the DRC.

[ENDS]

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5 News from David Boyd (former CMS missionary in DRC)

Dear all

I spoke with Mwenyemali and Louise yesterday, who told me that trouble was happening in Bukavu. Mwenyemali had had phone calls from relatives in Bukavu who were holed up in the university as fighting went on around them. I had also been hearing of it for several days on the BBC. Last night, their news led with the story that Bukavu had been taken by 2 rebel groups and the Congolese forces had left the town. These rebel groups are parts of the former RCD rebels who did not go to Kinshasa last July to join the unified government and army because of suspicions about their safety.

I have just now spoken to Jules, who says practically all shops and UN and NGO warehouses have been looted, so food will be a problem for the townspeople. It is not now unsafe to circulate, but anyone who may have stuff worth looting is a target and there is still shooting coming from Essence. The Archbishop's house has been entered three times and phones and US$ stolen. The Archbishop is in Mbuji-Mayi at the moment.

Jules says there are definitely Rwandan soldiers in town, as he has seen their vehicles. His opinion is that the rebels do not want to take other areas of the country, but to make a point about their rights. As far as he knows, all the church people are all right, although there have been a number of deaths and he himself has seen four bodies.

I told both Jules and Mwenyemali that I would pass on the news and ask everyone to pray.

David