11 12 13 Voice of America: UN Troops Start Operations against Congo's Rwandan Rebels

Defeating Rwandan FDLR insurgents, who have long been used as a pretext for
intervention in Congo by
neighboring Rwanda,
is seen as the next step in ending decades of conflict along the veteran foes'
shared border, weeks after the Congolese Tutsi-led M23 rebels were defeated.

 

General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz said on U.N.-backed Radio Okapi on
Tuesday that his troops would attack the FDLR rebel forces in a bid to secure a
road between the eastern Congolese towns of Kitchanga and Pinga.

 

“Everyone knows that the presence of armed groups along the border creates
problems with the neighboring states,” he said.

 

In November, U.N. soldiers in a newly formed intervention brigade with a robust
mandate supported the Congolese army with artillery and attack helicopters in
defeating the M23 rebellion, the most serious in Congo in the last decade.

 

The brigade, made up of troops from South Africa,
Tanzania and Malawi, will also lead operations against the
FDLR, which has launched sporadic attacks in Rwanda in an attempt to destabilize
Rwandan President Paul Kagame's government.

 

The FDLR, is a Hutu, anti-Kigali rebel group sprung from militias operating out
of eastern Congo
since fleeing the 1994 genoocide of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus.

 

“We have already intensified patrols and observation along the border and we
are planning operations against all rebel positions along the frontier,” Dos
Santos Cruz added.

 

At the start of December, the U.N. also unveiled surveillance drones that it
will use to monitor the volatile border between Congo
and its neighbors Rwanda and
Uganda.