Renegade DR Congo Troops Take Uganda Border Post

Renegade soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday took a Ugandan border post at the town of Bunagana, after fighting regular Congolese armed forces, police and the mutineers said.

"We took Bunagana around 6:00 am (0400 GMT)," lieutenant colonel Vianney Kazarama, spokesman for the mutinous armed force known as M23, told AFP.

"The mutineers took control of the entire town. The entire population and the (Congolese) troops are in Uganda," a police source in the area told AFP separately.

A Bunagana resident said, "It's over, the place has been occupied by the rebels. We're all crammed in on the Ugandan side."

DR Congo's government forces on Thursday launched an offensive to rout the mutineers but the M23 said loyalist forces had been repulsed.

Bunagana is about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the positions of mutineers who have gathered in the hills in the southeast of Virunga national park since May.

The park, home to mountain gorilla, borders Uganda and Rwanda about 50 kilometers (30 miles| north of Nord-Kivu's main town of Goma.