Date:13/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/13/stories/2004121304021300.htm

International

Congo army factions clash

BUKAVU (Congo): Rival factions in Congo's army fought gun battles in the vast nation's restive east on Sunday, killing several persons, a top military official said. A brigade of soldiers drawn from a rebel group in Congo's 1998-2002 war fought pre-dawn battles near the Rwandan border against troops from an ethnic militia that sided with Congo's wartime government, said army Col. Etienne Bindu. ``There have been several deaths, but the number has not yet been established,'' Col. Bindu said of the clashes near the city of Coma between former fighters of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, a militant group backed by Rwanda, and Congolese ethnic fighters known as Mai Mai. Col. Bindu, who fought on the side of Mai Mai during the war, said the ex-rebel troops had been sent to ``dislodge'' the one-time ethnic fighters from a position outside Goma, but he did not say who gave the order. Analysts say the army's continued cohesion is critical for the success of post-war national unity in the country, where fighting contributed to the deaths of some 3 million, mostly through disease and hunger. — AFP