GOMA, Congo: Congolese troops came under fire from rebels in the country’s volatile east Monday as fighting resumed just outside Goma, a city of nearly 1 million people near the volatile Congolese-Rwandan border, army officials said.
Heavy weapons fire rang out around 4:30 p.m. near the front line just 9 miles (11 km) outside the city.
Hostilities resumed last week after weeks of relative calm, and by Thursday a new United Nations intervention brigade with a stronger mandate than past missions shelled rebel positions for the first time.
Both sides suffered heavy casualties over the weekend, with more than 50 rebels killed and 23 government soldiers dead, according to a doctor near the front line and an army chaplain. Three UN peacekeepers were wounded: Two South Africans and a Tanzanian, UN-backed Radio Okapi reported.
The head of the United Nations mission in Congo, Martin Kobler, visited two hospitals on Sunday and paid his respects to wounded government and UN soldiers, hailing them as “heroes fighting to restore peace,” Radio Okapi reported.
The Congolese forces have advanced less than a mile (about 2 km) since Wednesday and have yet to achieve their immediate objective — cutting off M23 from a border crossing where the rebel group is believed to get supplies from neighboring Rwanda, say observers.
The Congolese are fighting with the help of a new United Nations intervention brigade, which was created after the M23 rebels invaded and briefly held Goma last November.
The M23 has been pounding Goma from their positions just north of the strategic city, killing civilians in Goma’s residential neighborhoods. By Saturday, scores of angry residents took to the streets in protest, claiming that the UN had not done enough to protect them. A UN car was set on fire, and in the melee two protesters were killed.
Some Goma residents claim the UN opened fire on the mob, but the President of Uruguay Jose Mujica said in a statement over the weekend that Uruguayan peacekeepers had only fired rubber bullets to control the crowd. Mujica said that it was Congolese police who had used live ammunition.
On Monday, the Congolese government called for an investigation into the deaths of the civilians. Minister of the Interior Richard Muyej told The Associated Press: “We are absolutely in agreement that a joint commission needs to be created (to investigate what happened.)” Medical services were struggling to cope with the scale of the casualties among government troops and the M23 fighters who launched their rebellion last year and briefly held Goma in November before retreating. Subsquent peace talks in neighboring Uganda have repeatedly stalled.
Dr. Isaac Warwanamiza said that he had seen 82 bodies since early Sunday, 23 of whom he claimed were government soldiers, the highest death toll reported since hostilities broke out last week.
“I’m overwhelmed by what I’ve seen: bodies blown apart, arms and feet here and there,” he said, speaking by phone from a hospital north of Goma.
Eight of the dead had no uniforms, 23 were government troops and the rest were M23 rebels, the doctor added.
The total of wounded Congolese troops at the military hospital is 720, according to army chaplain Lea Masika.
Congo and UN forces fight rebels
