UN
United Nations Peacekeeping
6 Mar
2009
Press Review
The majority of today's local papers mainly focus on the ongoing clashes around the Kanyabayonga district, Eastern DRC.
''FARDC troops clashed against mutinous soldiers of the Rwandan-sponsored ex-rebel movement on Monday'', Le Phare reports. The paper quotes mutineers as reporting ''a dozen people killed on Government side'', and ''two injured on the mutineers'''. L'AVENIR however publishes a completely different toll indicating ''approximately fifty dead and a hundred injured on the enemy's side'' (the Rwanda-backed mutineers).
''In such a confused situation, Le Phare highlights, no one is in position to tell the exact toll of the clashes''. No one can either exactly identify the belligerents. The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD/Goma) is quoted by Le Phare as describing the Kanyabayonga clashes as nothing less than ''a mutiny'' (pitting the troops drawn from the ex-ANC-RCD National Army and a portion of the troops recently dispatched by Kinshasa to reinforce the 8th military region).
''The winner of the clashes is known, Le Palmarès writes; it is Paul Kagame who gets all the dividends from the unnecessary killing between Congolese''. Le Phare quotes Kigali as indicating that this is ''a strictly Congolese business''. According to MONUC, ''it is a fight between FARDC ex-components''. In a communiqué echoed by Le Potentiel, the UN Mission in DRC ''appeals for calm and calls on the transition government to sort out the current confusion in Nord-Kivu'''.
In its editorial, Le Potentiel refers to a ''framework of a new army'' amidst proceedings about the restoration of Government authority in Eastern DRC, Nord-Kivu,. For the paper: ''As much as the new incursion into DRC by Rwandan troops is unanimously condemned, the formation of a Congolese restructured army is urgently needed.'' In this context, the paper recalls, the DRC, South Africa and the Kingdom of Belgium signed on Monday in Kinshasa a memorandum of agreement with a view to forming a genuine national army. ''The country's home and external security are the army's responsibility'', the paper says, further announcing the arrival of Louis Michel, European Commissioner in charge of development tomorrow in Kinshasa. He is due to hold talks with President Joseph Kabila and other Congolese stakeholders, not to mention the business community. Louis Michel will thereafter fly to Kigali in the same context.
''In such a confused situation, Le Phare highlights, no one is in position to tell the exact toll of the clashes''. No one can either exactly identify the belligerents. The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD/Goma) is quoted by Le Phare as describing the Kanyabayonga clashes as nothing less than ''a mutiny'' (pitting the troops drawn from the ex-ANC-RCD National Army and a portion of the troops recently dispatched by Kinshasa to reinforce the 8th military region).
''The winner of the clashes is known, Le Palmarès writes; it is Paul Kagame who gets all the dividends from the unnecessary killing between Congolese''. Le Phare quotes Kigali as indicating that this is ''a strictly Congolese business''. According to MONUC, ''it is a fight between FARDC ex-components''. In a communiqué echoed by Le Potentiel, the UN Mission in DRC ''appeals for calm and calls on the transition government to sort out the current confusion in Nord-Kivu'''.
In its editorial, Le Potentiel refers to a ''framework of a new army'' amidst proceedings about the restoration of Government authority in Eastern DRC, Nord-Kivu,. For the paper: ''As much as the new incursion into DRC by Rwandan troops is unanimously condemned, the formation of a Congolese restructured army is urgently needed.'' In this context, the paper recalls, the DRC, South Africa and the Kingdom of Belgium signed on Monday in Kinshasa a memorandum of agreement with a view to forming a genuine national army. ''The country's home and external security are the army's responsibility'', the paper says, further announcing the arrival of Louis Michel, European Commissioner in charge of development tomorrow in Kinshasa. He is due to hold talks with President Joseph Kabila and other Congolese stakeholders, not to mention the business community. Louis Michel will thereafter fly to Kigali in the same context.
