Militias kill four soldiers

Militiamen attacked an army camp in eastern Congo, killing four soldiers and kidnapping 10 in the latest violence to hit the lawless region, a United Nations spokeswoman said today.

Rwandan rebels and Congolese militiamen known as the Mayi Mayi launched the assault in Kiseguri, about 60 miles north of the eastern border town of Goma, UN spokeswoman Jacqueline Chenard said.

“They then fled into the nearby Virunga forest with the kidnapped soldiers,” Chenard said.

Army officials could not be reached for comment.

Backed by UN peacekeepers, a transitional government set up after Congo’s ruinous 1998-2002 war is struggling to gain control over the east, formerly held by Congolese rebel groups whose leaders have been given top positions in government.

An estimated 10,000 Rwandan rebels who fled to Congo after helping orchestrate Rwanda’s 1994 genocide remain in the heavily forested region along the borders with Rwanda and Burundi.

In March, Rwandan rebels announced they would lay down their arms this year and return home. But they continue to attack civilians and military camps, often fighting alongside the Mayi Mayi, with whom they were loosely allied during the war.

In May, the United Nations said Rwandan rebels and local militiamen had killed, raped and kidnapped about 900 people since June 2004.

Congo’s transitional government says nationwide elections will be held next year despite the violence, and authorities began registering voters nationwide in June.

A senior Mayi Mayi leader today said violence could disrupt voter registration in the east if the government does not bring more Mayi Mayi fighters into a new national army.

“Soldiers are disillusioned with the government since they have not been integrated into the military, despite completing training at military camps,” Mayi Mayi leader Willy Mishiki said. “The boys are hungry and have no work.”

President Joseph Kabila’s spokesman, Kudura Kasongo, said the government was committed to going ahead with the elections.