UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon dispatched his top
envoy for the Great Lakes Region to Angola as fighting in the
neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo continued.
This came as the United States and the EU
expressed alarm over the fighting in the east that has seen the central
DRC government try to neutralise an armed insurrection by the M23 rebel
group.
Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN Special Envoy for the
Great Lakes region of Africa arrived in Luanda on Saturday for talks
with authorities over the DRC crisis.
"I am here for the Angolan President's support for
the Great Lakes region pacification. The DRC east situation is a
serious one and we will be working under the Kampala (Uganda) peace
agreement to overcome the situation," Mrs Robinson, a former Irish
President, told journalists at Luanda’s 4 de Fevereiro airport.
The Kampala talks are meant to end the fighting between the two sides but have in recent weeks flagged due to the fighting.
A high-profile Addis Ababa agreement was also signed in February in an attempt to end the deadly fighting.
Parties to the pact were Angola, Burundi, the
Central African Republic (CAR), Congo, DRC, Rwanda, South Africa, South
Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
Mrs Robinson's visit came as fighting in the east entered the third day.
"Some fighting is still going on in Kibumba," some
25 kilometres (12 miles) north of the regional mining hub of Goma, a UN
official told wire agencies.
Kibumba, high on a plateau at an altitude of
nearly 1,800 metres (6,000 feet), is an outpost that commands access to
rebel territory further north.
Offensive
The rebels withdrew to Kibumba after a major
offensive by the army backed by the UN force MONUSCO in late August
pushed the frontline back some 15 kilometres.
Fresh fighting broke out around Kibumba on Friday,
the heaviest since August, with each side accusing the other of
initiating the violence and claiming to win ground.
The new clashes come less than a week after Kinshasa and the M23 rebels announced that the Kampala peace talks had collapsed.
The negotiations were part of a framework both
sides agreed to last year, following a rebel offensive that saw the M23
briefly take control of Goma.
The UN has since deployed a special brigade of
3,000 African forces with an unprecedented offensive mandate but
observers remain wary of an escalation that could draw in the entire
region.
The US said Saturday it was alarmed at reports of the increased fighting.
"We are particularly concerned about reports of
cross-border firing," in North Kivu, State Department spokeswoman Jen
Psaki said in a statement, urging all parties "to refrain from acts of
further escalation."
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
