|
|
|
|
Rebels Recapture Strategic Congolese Port
By Jean Baptiste Kayigamba, a Reuters writer
KIGALI (Reuters) - The main Congolese rebel movement recaptured a key port on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on Wednesday after fighting government-backed forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites) for several months.
An official of the Rwanda-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) said its troops, helped by allies from Rwanda and Burundi, had taken Kazimiya port on Wednesday morning.
Tambwe Muzuri, a spokesman for the government backed Mai-Mai militia, confirmed from Kinshasa that rebels had seized the port.
Fierce fighting has raged in eastern Congo since early September, threatening already fragile attempts to bring peace to the vast country which has been at war for three years.
For the past five months, Kazimiya, more than 500 km (300 miles) south of Bukavu in South Kivu province, has been a stronghold for a coalition of Rwandan and Burundian Hutu rebels and Mai-Mai militiamen, loyal to Kinshasa.
``Our forces flushed the enemy out of Kazimiya this morning without much resistance because the attack came as a surprise to the enemy who had been besieged for many days,'' RCD spokesman Jean Pierre Kisanga told Reuters.
``They left in disarray toward Kigoma, Tanzania, aboard a ship they had seized from merchants, leaving many dead behind.''
Congolese rebels say the port was a transit point for Rwandan and Burundian rebels coming from southeastern Katanga province and going to attack neighboring Rwanda and Burundi.
``Upon arrival in Kazimiya, these forces cross to Ubwari island, located in Lake Tanganyika, and then sail northward toward these countries and eastern Congo,'' Kisanga said.
The rebel capture came as long awaited peace talks, which started in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday, were suspended to address concerns over funding and representation.
The civil war in Congo has killed well over a million people, according to some estimates, many as a result of starvation and a collapse in healthcare.
The conflict has become increasingly complex, sucking in many of Congo's neighbors and pitting government forces loyal to President Joseph Kabila against various rebel opponents, many of whom control vast tracts of land in a country the size of Western Europe.
