Goma, Nov 08: The head of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday accused Laurent Nkunda's rebels and pro-government militia of committing war crimes earlier this week.
Speaking at a news conference in Goma, Alan Doss deplored the killing of civilians in the town of Kiwanja, near Rutshuru, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the Nord-Kivu provincial capital.
"We condemn them, we deplore them, and we remind the different groups involved that international law is very clear on this -- these are war crimes that we cannot tolerate," he said.
African leaders criticised the world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force on Saturday for failing to protect civilians and end the violence that is convulsing eastern Congo and threatening to spread.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the 17,000 troops were "stretched to the limit." He spoke in Nairobi at a summit with African leaders that included Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Officials said rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, who is spearheading the Congo offensive, was not invited.
A summit communiqué said regional nations should send peacemaking forces if necessary and "not stand by to witness incessant and destructive acts of violence by armed groups against innocent people."
"There should be an immediate ceasefire by all the armed men and militia in North Kivu," said Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula, reading a communique agreed by seven African leaders who met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Nairobi.
Both sides have been accused of killing civilians. New York-based Human Rights Watch said at least 100 have died, while others say the civilian toll is undetermined.
Meanwhile, fighting raged anew in Congo between the Army and rebels outside Goma near Kibati, where about 45,000 refugees from the rebellion in mineral-rich eastern Congo have taken refuge.
Thousands fled toward the relative safety of Goma.
The French aid group, Doctors Without Borders, reported fighting in the Goma-area towns of Rutshuru and Kiwanja, where the charity tried to send staff who had to turn back. The aid group said Rutshuru hospital was full of displaced civilians.
Ban denied an earlier UN report that Angolan troops had joined Congolese soldiers battling rebels near Goma, an account that raised new fears the conflict could spread in the region.
African Union Chairman and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the newly-nominated UN special envoy for east Congo, would try to talk to the warring parties on the ground, including the Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
The African leaders called for a humanitarian corridor to be set up to channel aid to help refugees.
"This crisis could engulf the broader sub-region," Ban told the Nairobi summit, adding that only a lasting political settlement, rather than military moves alone, could solve it.
As the United Nations and African leaders were meeting, Nkunda's battle-hardened fighters and government troops exchanged machinegun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire from green hills in sight of North Kivu's Nyiragongo volcano.
As the sound of combat echoed around the slopes, civilians carrying infants, bundles, pots and even domestic animals streamed south away from the camp at Kibati toward the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, 7 km (4 miles) to the south.
Rwandan Hutu rebels
A key issue African leaders need to resolve for a lasting solution is the presence in east Congo of Rwandan Hutu rebels, known as the FDLR, who took part in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Previous agreements to halt the fighting have failed to produce results on the ground.
Nkunda says his revolt is a legitimate one to protect ethnic Tutsis in Congo from the Hutu rebels. He told Reuters on Friday the summit would have no influence on him unless the leaders persuaded Congo's Kabila to have talks.
"It's only a regional summit. It doesn't have any impact on our demands," Nkunda said by telephone from east Congo.
The region is rich in minerals, such as coltan which is used in mobile phones, making control of the remote terrain, far from Congo's capital Kinshasa, lucrative.
UN relief agencies, which run the Kibati refugee camp, said Friday's fighting had interrupted the distribution of aid and caused panic among camp residents.
Rwanda denies supporting Nkunda and accuses Congo's army of backing the Hutu rebels in the east.
The number of people displaced by fighting in North Kivu since September is estimated at 250,000, the United Nations said. This was in addition to 800,000 who had fled previous hostilities.
"The humanitarian situation is deteriorating," Elisabeth Byrs of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, November 08, 2008, 00:00