War alert as UN patrols spot Rwandan troop movements inside Congo

UNITED NATIONS air and ground patrols have spotted signs of major Rwandan troop movements inside Congo, a move that threatens to reawaken central Africa’s devastating six-nation war.

Freshly made encampments and unidentified well-equipped troops have been seen in east Congo, UN officials said yesterday.

The sightings bolstered suspicions that Rwanda is making good on its threat to send troops into its larger, but militarily weaker, neighbour.

“We have more and more corroborating signs tending to establish the presence of Rwandan troops in Congo,” said Mamadou Bah, spokesman for the UN mission in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital.

Indications included aerial photographs of camps and of troops in new vehicles in Congo’s east, Mr Bah said.

Additionally, ground patrols have photographed encampments that appeared to have been recently occupied, another senior UN official said.

In the Rwandan capital, Kigali, Rwandan regional envoy Richard Sezibera denied that troops have entered Congo.

However, he insisted that Rwanda reserved the right to do so if UN and Congo forces fail to disarm Hutu rebels.

“All reported sightings of Rwandan troops in the Congo are false,” said Mr Sezibera. “Rwanda doesn’t want to enter the Congo, and that’s why we are calling on the international community and the Congo to help Rwanda not have to enter the Congo.”

Besides Rwandan rebels, numerous armed groups operate in hilly, forested east Congo, where an 11,000-strong United Nations force is helping Congo’s government try to establish control of the long neglected region.

Central Africa’s five-year, six-nation war in Congo started with a 1998 invasion by Rwanda in pursuit of the Hutu rebels.

Rwanda’s revived threats, which come as Congo and United Nations peacekeepers step up their own efforts to disarm the rebels and other armed groups in east Congo, have raised fears of a reignition of the conflict in Africa’s third-largest nation.

UN Security Council diplomats in New York were scheduled to hold meetings yesterday to discuss the crisis and a US envoy has been sent to the region.