U.N. Chief Vows Peacekeepers to Stay in DRC's Threatened Goma
U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon vowed Sunday that peacekeepers will stay in the DR Congo city of Goma after U.N. combat helicopters and government troops failed to stop a rebel advance amid growing international alarm.
Government troops and local officials were already fleeing the city, said several sources.
The M23 rebels, army mutineers whose uprising in April has unleashed fresh unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo's chronically unstable east, are now near the airport of Goma, the main city in the mineral-rich region.
The U.N. warned there was a "real threat" that Goma would fall. Rebels had already warned that they would seize the city if they came under attack from the army.
But Ban said the U.N. troops "will remain present in Goma and will continue all efforts to robustly implement its mandate to the fullest of its capabilities with regard to the protection of civilians."
The U.N. chief "emphasises that any actions to undermine or target MONUSCO (the U.N. mission) will not be tolerated," according to a statement released by his office.
The United Nations has about 6,700 troops in Nord Kivu province, backing government forces against rebels who have moved to the edge of Goma in recent days. About 1,500 of them are in Goma.
U.N. attack helicopters have staged cannon and rocket strikes against the rebels but have not been able to stop the steady advance towards the capital of Nord Kivu, a key mineral producing region.
Innocent Kayina, M23 operations commander for the area, told Agence France Presse: "If the FARDC (government forces) attack us, we will take the city."
Government troops said they were trying to avoid a "bloodbath" in the area.
In New York, U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Kieran Dwyer told AFP that U.N. forces were supporting government troops in the region by firing cannon and rockets at the rebels, after similar action on Saturday.
"The situation in Goma is extremely tense. There is a real threat that the city could fall into the M23's hands," said Dwyer.
About 625 U.N. expatriate workers had gathered at special protection points across the city, he added. U.N. peacekeepers in 17 "quick reaction units" had been deployed across Goma.
After a three-month truce, fighting in the region resumed on Thursday, just two days after the United Nations and the United States imposed sanctions on the leader of the M23 group.
The rebels are ethnic Tutsi former soldiers who mutinied in April after the failure of a 2009 peace deal that integrated them into the regular army.
U.N. experts have said Rwanda and Uganda back the rebels, a charge fiercely denied by both countries.
The E.U. joined the U.N. in calling on the rebels to halt their advance.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed their deep concern about the violence.
The U.N. Security Council held an emergency session on the crisis on Saturday, demanding an end to the M23 advance and "that any and all outside support and supply of equipment to the M23 cease immediately".
It also vowed fresh sanctions against M23 leaders and those who help it breach U.N. sanctions and an arms embargo.
The fighting is the most serious since July, when U.N. helicopters last went into action against the M23.
Source: Agence France Presse
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