UN says Congo army, rebels clash

[David]

AP


GOMA, Congo – Clashes between Congo's army and rebels broke out briefly just outside the provincial capital of Goma on Friday as a peace summit aimed at halting the crisis opened in Kenya, the United Nations said.

The army fired mortars at rebels just north of Kibati and rebels responded with gunfire, said U.N. military spokesman Maj. Shardool Sharma. Some bursts of distant machine-gunfire were audible in Goma.

There were no immediate reports of casualties at Kibati, a small village six miles (10 kilometers) north of Goma with a refugee population of about 45,000. But the road south toward Goma was again lined with refugees fleeing the conflict, as it was last week.

The U.N. refugee agency said the shooting lasted around 30 minutes, interrupted aid distributions and caused "panic among the camp population."

A unilateral Oct. 29 cease-fire called by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has crumbled amid persistent reports of fighting across North Kivu province over the last week.

Though clashes have ground on for years in eastern Congo, fighting intensified in August. Since then, around 250,000 people have been displaced. Human Rights Watch says at least 100 civilians have been killed and more than 150 injured.

Nkunda called the cease-fire last week as his fighters reached the outskirts of Goma, forcing the army into a chaotic retreat in tanks and commandeered cars.

The conflict is fueled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in Rwanda, and Congo's wars from 1996-2002, which drew in more than half a dozen African nations.

Nkunda claims he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu rebels who participated in the genocide and fled to Congo afterward.

On the diplomatic front Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met at an urgent summit on Congo with seven African leaders from the region as well as African Union representatives. Congo President Joseph Kabila is attending as well as Rwanda President Paul Kagame, who wields strong influence with Nkunda's rebels.

He has called for an immediate cease-fire and urged the armed groups involved to find a political solution to the crisis.

Rebel spokesman Bisimwa, however, said: "We expect nothing from this summit."