29 10 13 AFP: UN Council to hold emergency DR Congo talks as troops 'push back rebels'

The FARDC
regular army took back control of both the city of Rutshuru and the rebel-held
town of Kiwanja, home to a base used by the UN mission MONUSCO that had been
repeatedly looted by rebels, said the governor of North-Kivu province, Julien
Paluku.

MONUSCO
said a Tanzanian officer was killed in Kiwanja, where United Nations forces
joined the army to drive out rebels on the third day of clashes since a fresh
flare-up in violence on Friday. The circumstances of his death were unclear,
said the UN force.

The
soldier was the third Tanzanian with the UN brigade to have been killed in
recent months.

"The
soldier died while protecting the people of Kiwanja," said MONUSCO head
Martin Kobler in a statement.

The
spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a
statement the UN chief "condemns in the strongest terms the killing of a
Tanzanian peacekeeper who came under fire from the M23 movement in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"The
Secretary-General offers his sincere condolences and sympathy to the family of
the victim, and to the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania."

The
statement added that the United Nations "remains committed to taking all
necessary actions … to protect civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo".

France later called for an emergency
meeting of the 15-member Security Council to discuss the latest crisis in the
troubled region.

M23 said
it had "retreated without combat", saying it "refused to fight
in Kiwanja".

In a
statement, the group also threatened to pull out of stalled peace talks with Kinshasa unless there was
an "immediate cessation of the hostilities".

In the
town of Rutshuru,
relieved residents "showered soldiers with flowers to thank them for their
help" after the rebels fled, according to one local man who gave his name
as Bruno.

'Mass
graves found'

By Sunday
evening, a high-ranking army officer said troops had also taken the strategic
town of Kibumba,
which has seen heavy fighting since clashes first broke out there on Friday.
"Kibumba is under FARDC control," the source told AFP.

Provincial
governor Paluku said two mass graves had been discovered in the town. He called
for "an international investigation" and said army troops had been
told not to touch the bodies.

A MONUSCO
officer who did not wish to be named said there had been "numerous flights
by M23 rebels" but refused to confirm that government forces were in
complete control of Kibumba.

There was
no immediate comment from M23 rebels on the situation in the Kibumba, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of the
regional mining hub of Goma.

Kibumba,
located high on a plateau at an altitude of nearly 1,800 metres (6,000 feet), is an
outpost that provides access to rebel territory further north, and has been
home to the M23 since a MONUSCO offensive in late August.

This
latest bout of fighting comes less than a week after the breakdown of peace
talks in Uganda,
which both sides agreed to in 2012 after a rebel offensive saw the M23 briefly
take control of Goma.

The UN
has since deployed a special brigade of 3,000 African troops with an
unprecedented offensive mandate but observers remain wary of an escalation that
could draw in the entire region.

The UN
chief's top envoys to the conflict, Kobler and Mary Robinson, have voiced grave
concern over the fresh fighting, calling for "maximum restraint". The
United States
and European Union have also sounded the alarm.

But the
unrest showed no signs of abating with the M23 warning in a statement on Sunday
that "it will no longer tolerate another military attack on our troops'
positions".

If
attacked, the rebels would plan a large-scale counter-offensive against
"all enemy positions", M23 communications chief Amani Kabasha said in
the statement.

DR
Congo's neighbour Rwanda
on Friday accused the Congolese army of firing three shells over the border
into its territory and threatened to retaliate.

Kinshasa has long accused Kigali of pulling the
strings behind the rebellion and UN experts have even said that the M23's
"de facto chain of command" was topped by Rwanda's defence minister.