Kabila cancels Vatican visit

Goma – Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila cancelled a Vatican visit on Monday, said diplomats, as clashes between rebel and government forces resumed in his country’s restive Nord-Kivu province.

After loyalists to ex-general Laurent Nkunda appeared to gain ground over the weekend, fighting between the rebels and the DRC troops took place early on Monday near the strategic eastern village of Mushake, the army and the United Nations peacekeeping mission here (Monuc) said. Monuc spokesperson Sylvie van den Wildenberg said: “There was fighting during the weekend and it’s continuing this morning.”Mushake is still in the hands of the FARDC (government forces), but Nkunda forces have retaken position (since Saturday) on a hill two to three kilometres (one to two miles) from there.”But a Monuc military spokesperson said the fighting was not intense, an assessment echoed by the government, whose spokesperson Prem Tiwari said the army troops were ‘consolidating their positions’.Still, the unrest caused Kabila to cancel a Monday meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, said a diplomat from the Vatican, citing “security problems in the east of the country”.In Kinshasa, presidential spokesperson Kudura Kasongo cited Kabila’s ‘national agenda’ as forcing him to stay put.Kasongo said: “Just after a cabinet reshuffle and as (military) operations are taking place in Nord-Kivu, the place of the president was here, in the DRC, to respond to the concerns of the Congolese people.”The clashes came a week after the 25 000-strong army launched a vast offensive against Nkunda loyalists, who numbered about 4 000.But the rebel general had so far rejected demands by Kinshasa and the UN to disarm – and by Washington to surrender and go into exile.Nkunda said he was defending local Tutsis against Hutu rebels from neighbouring Rwanda holed up in the DRC since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.The renewed violence had fed UN fears for the welfare of tens of thousands of people already displaced by months of unrest.There had also been separate clashes involving local militia.Nampa-AFPMonuc spokesperson Sylvie van den Wildenberg said: “There was fighting during the weekend and it’s continuing this morning.”Mushake is still in the hands of the FARDC (government forces), but Nkunda forces have retaken position (since Saturday) on a hill two to three kilometres (one to two miles) from there.”But a Monuc military spokesperson said the fighting was not intense, an assessment echoed by the government, whose spokesperson Prem Tiwari said the army troops were ‘consolidating their positions’.Still, the unrest caused Kabila to cancel a Monday meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, said a diplomat from the Vatican, citing “security problems in the east of the country”.In Kinshasa, presidential spokesperson Kudura Kasongo cited Kabila’s ‘national agenda’ as forcing him to stay put.Kasongo said: “Just after a cabinet reshuffle and as (military) operations are taking place in Nord-Kivu, the place of the president was here, in the DRC, to respond to the concerns of the Congolese people.”The clashes came a week after the 25 000-strong army launched a vast offensive against Nkunda loyalists, who numbered about 4 000.But the rebel general had so far rejected demands by Kinshasa and the UN to disarm – and by Washington to surrender and go into exile.Nkunda said he was defending local Tutsis against Hutu rebels from neighbouring Rwanda holed up in the DRC since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.The renewed violence had fed UN fears for the welfare of tens of thousands of people already displaced by months of unrest.There had also been separate clashes involving local militia.Nampa-AFP