i have been searching for hours - literally - for a positive news story about Africa. i found a couple, but more suitable perhaps for the Culture Forum.
At any rate, here is a news article regarding Congo; sadly i don’t know much about this issue. Is Rwanda still supporting the rebel factions in the DRC - wasn’t there supposed to have been some sort of agreement that was signed a couple of months ago, by both sides? Or am i mistaken again?
Congo’s war refuses to end, Rory Carroll, Mail & Guardian, 3 March 2003
Pro-government forces have slaughtered hundreds of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo in one of the worst massacres since a peace deal was signed, rebels claimed yesterday.
A coalition of loyalist troops, tribal militia and Ugandan army soldiers rampaged for two days last week in Bogoro, south of the town of Bunia which is near the Ugandan border, according to Thomas Lubanga, leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), a small rebel group backed by Rwanda.
“Until yesterday we had counted up to 467 people had been killed. We’re still receiving more reports today. They were all civilians,” Lubanga told Reuters.
A rival rebel group, RCD-Kisangani, also said there had been a massacre but said the toll was 250 and rising. An official from the United Nations mission in Congo (Monuc) confirmed there was an attack and said the higher death toll “could be true”.
The war, which has devastated the vast central African country for the past four years, is supposed to be winding down, following accords between neighbouring coun tries which became involved, as well as between Congolese factions.
However, fighting in Ituri province in the north-east has continued, as different groups vie for control in a power vacuum, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes in recent months.
More than a million civilians are thought to have died in the war, most through disease and hunger, but many as the victims of massacres. There was often confusion and doubt over which of the myriad groups were responsible.
Rwanda and Uganda have denied breaching the accords but sceptics say both countries are still hooked on plundering a chaotic neighbour rich in diamonds, gold and other mineral reserves.
Residents of Bunia said Ugandan troop reinforcements arrived in recent weeks following heightened tension with the UPC rebels.
Most foreign troops have withdrawn but Uganda still has some 2000 soldiers, who are due to withdraw by March 20. Uganda’s defence minister, Amama Mbabazi, denied having any troops in the area of the recent fighting or knowing anything of massacred civilians. “I don’t have those reports,” he said.
Diplomatic cables seen by Africa Confidential, a London-based newsletter, have accused Uganda and Rwanda of delivering fresh arms to their proxy militias in defiance of the South African-brokered peace accord signed in Pretoria last September.
Rwanda, in particular, is said to have actively undermined the accord by using Russian cargo planes to airlift heavy weapons to Lubanga’s UPC rebels.
In the absence of independent observers on the ground it is difficult to verify the claims. The UN force of 5 000 can cover only a small fraction of the country, though its reach will improve following the security council’s recent approval of an extra 3700 soldiers and its promise to accelerate their deployment in the eastern flashpoints.
The latest reported massacre will deepen scepticism about the viability of the peace deal. Some rebel factions suspect President Joseph Kabila of trying to derail the accord by delaying the launch of an all-party transitional government.
Uganda and Rwanda invaded Congo in 1998 to lend support to rebels fighting the government. The war in Congo sucked in a number of other foreign armies, including those of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
