16 07 13 Reuters – Eastern Congo clashes feed tensions with Rwanda

The United
Nations, which is deploying a 3,000-strong Intervention Brigade with a
mandate to enforce peace in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, vowed to
halt any rebel advance towards Goma.

The worst fighting for
several weeks prompted Kinshasa to repeat claims
that Rwanda
was backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebels. Rwanda, meanwhile, accused
Congolese and U.N. troops of deliberately shelling its territory.

The escalating tension
underlines the challenge facing the U.N. Brigade – drawn from South Africa, Tanzania
and Malawi – as it seeks to
end unrest in eastern Congo
in which millions of people have died from violence, hunger and disease since
the 1990s.

At Muja, a village some 11 km (7 miles) from Goma,
government forces used heavy weapons to try to drive back M23 fighters after
clashes on Sunday afternoon.

"We are going to
chase the enemy very far from Goma so that they will not have a chance to
recapture the town," army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli told Reuters
television.

The M23 rebels alarmed
many countries in November by seizing Goma, a city of 1 million people on the shore of Lake Kivu. The rebel takeover sparked
widespread criticism of U.N. peacekeeping, prompting a drive for a regional
peace deal and the creation of the new brigade.

Each side blamed the other
for opening hostilities on Sunday. Fighting resumed at 5.30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. ET) on
Monday after calm overnight, Hamuli said.

The U.N. peacekeeping
mission in Congo
said on its Twitter feed that it would use "all means necessary" to
protect civilians and that any rebel push towards Goma would be seen as a
direct threat to civilians.

In Kinshasa,
government spokesman Lambert Mende accused Rwanda of backing the M23 in
fighting and said the rebels had sustained heavy losses in Sunday's combat.

"Some 120 of its
fighters were killed in the clashes yesterday. In army ranks, we lost 10 of our
valiant fighters."

Both sides in the
conflict routinely inflate enemy casualty figures. An army official on the
ground in eastern Congo
said it was too early to give a precise estimate.

M23 spokesman Vianey
Kazarama said rebels held the upper hand and would resist until the government
offensive ended.

PROVOCATIVE AND
DELIBERATE

The 17,000-strong U.N.
force in Congo (MONUSCO), the world's largest peacekeeping mission, has been
deployed for more than a decade but has failed to stem the complex conflict.

The arrival of the
Intervention Brigade – part of MONUSCO but with a more robust mandate – which
has begun patrolling and is approaching full strength, has raised some hopes of
peace. The World Bank is offering $1 billion to regional governments to promote
development if they respect a U.N.-brokered February deal not to back rebels in
Congo.

Subsequent talks between
the Congolese government and M23 in Kampala, the
capital of neighboring Uganda,
have stalled.

Congo has long accused Rwanda
of backing the M23. A U.N. panel of experts' report said the group recruits in Rwanda with the
aid of sympathetic military officers.

Kigali, which has in the past backed
insurgents in Congo,
denies any support for M23.

Rwanda's military on Monday accused the
Congolese army (FARDC) and U.N. troops of bombing Rwandan territory though it
said no one was hurt.

"This was a
provocative and deliberate act by FARDC and MONUSCO since there was no fighting
nearby between the warring factions," a spokesman for Rwanda's
military said.

Separately, in a letter
to U.N. diplomats seen by Reuters on Monday, Rwanda accused the intervention
brigade of discussing collaboration with the FDLR, a group of Hutu rebels linked
to the Rwandan genocide of 1994,
in order to take on M23.