GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) – Rebels from the M23 movement and the army fought Monday north of Goma just two days before UN chief Ban Ki-moon was due to visit the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, both sides said.
The volatile mineral-rich region was rocked by hours of fierce fighting with mortars and rocket launchers in the first clashes involving M23 since December.
The rebels briefly occupied the regional capital of Goma in November.
The latest fighting comes a week after the first troops from a new UN intervention brigade arrived in the country with a strong mandate to attack rebel groups.
Congolese army (FARDC) spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli said troops had managed to “push back” the rebels by Monday afternoon and were carrying out search operations.
A Western military source said shooting was “sporadic” after hours of fighting which saw the army sustain casualties but hold their position.
The fighting broke out 12 kilometres (seven miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, with each side accusing the other of launching an assault.
“They launched the offensive,” said Hamuli. “It was to prevent the deployment of the intervention brigade and probably sabotage the arrival of Ban Ki-moon.”
M23’s political chief, Bertrand Bisimwa, said the battle first started at 6am because Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) had taken an M23 position at Mutaho.
“When our troops went to fetch water, they found that the wells were already under attack by the FDLR. We chased them away,” Bisimwa said. “At 6:00 am (0400 GMT), the FARDC (Congolese army) began shelling our positions, backed by ground troops who were shooting with light arms.”
At the end of the morning a column of soldiers left the outskirts of the city, heading north, an AFP journalist saw.
The clashes are the first to have broken out since the rebel movement, formed by army mutineers in North Kivu province last year, withdrew from Goma in December, after occupying the city of a million people for 10 days.
Major Vincent Tourny, an interim spokesman for MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo, said that the Mutaho region was attacked in the early morning by M23 rebels targeting the Congolese army.
Tourny said that sporadic shooting was followed by heavier gunfire, then mortars and rocket launchers were heard being used in the Kibati highlands.
No death toll has been given by either side.
Tourny said that 800 civilians had fled towards Goma.
MONUSCO put its forces on alert around Goma on Monday, especially around the airport and aerial patrols will be conducted, he added.
UN Secretary General Ban is due to visit the DRC on Wednesday as part of a tour that will take him to Goma as well as the Rwandan capital Kigali and Entebbe in Uganda.
The Kinshasa government and the UN both accuse Rwanda and Uganda of backing M23, an allegation the two neighbouring countries deny.
M23, named for a peace deal with the DRC government signed on March 23, 2009, emerged out of an ethnic Tutsi mutiny by former rebels integrated into the army, on the grounds that the Kinshasa government had failed to abide by terms of the pact.
The rebels seized Goma in November but withdrew shortly after following a promise of dialogue with Kinshasa. Since pulling out, the rebels have held positions a few kilometres from the city.
The new UN brigade will include soldiers from Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. It has a tougher offensive mandate than MONUSCO.
The new attack force is being deployed because of persistent activity by rebels and armed militias in eastern DRC, but a Western military source said the force will not be fully operational for several weeks.