Angolan Troops Reported Assisting Congolese Soldiers
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Saturday, November 8, 2008
GOMA, Congo, Nov. 7 -- Angolan troops have joined Congolese soldiers battling rebels near the city of Goma, U.N. officials in the region reported Friday, raising fears that the conflict would spread as African leaders struggled to find a way to stop it.
New clashes between soldiers and rebels erupted just outside Goma near Kibati, where about 45,000 refugees from the rebellion in mineral-rich eastern Congo have taken refuge. Thousands fled toward the relative safety of Goma.
A U.N. official and a Uruguayan peacekeeping officer in Congo said Friday that an unspecified number of Angolan troops arrived four days ago. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.
But in New York, the U.N. assistant secretary general for peacekeeping, Edmond Mulet, denied that Angolan troops had joined the fighting.
"We have no evidence of that, and MONUC has not been able to confirm any of that," Mulet said, referring to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo by its French acronym. "So for us it is not happening."
Mulet said some people might have mistaken Congolese government troops who had trained in Angola, and who therefore spoke Portuguese, for Angolan troops.
Congo asked Angola for political and military support Oct. 29 as rebels led by renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda advanced toward Goma, capital of North Kivu province near the border with Rwanda. Nkunda called a unilateral cease-fire last week when his forces reached the outskirts of the city, but the truce has crumbled.
The involvement of Angolans could spread the conflict beyond Congo's borders. Neighboring Rwanda probably would consider Angolan troops a provocation. Rwanda's government is accused of supporting the Congolese rebels.
Congo's 1998-2002 war drew in more than half a dozen African nations, including Angola and Rwanda, which profited from the vast country's wealth of diamonds and other minerals.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, holding a peace summit in Nairobi with Congolese President Joseph Kabila and six other African leaders, warned that the "crisis could engulf the broader subregion."
The Nairobi meeting was unlikely to achieve much without the presence of rebels, who were not invited. "We expect nothing" from it, said rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa.
The Congolese government has refused direct talks with the rebels.
