20/11/2012 19:29
Rebels Resume Fight for Goma
Heavy shelling and gunfire on Monday broke a tense standoff between Congolese rebels on the outskirts of the eastern Congolese city of Goma and government soldiers backed by United Nations troops who were hunkered down inside, as fears also rose of a direct military confrontation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbor Rwanda.
The Congolese government rejected an ultimatum made by rebels Sunday night to withdraw from Goma and accused Rwanda, which a United Nations panel has said has links to the March 23 rebels, of sending two battalions of troops over the border into Congo to fight on their behalf and firing a rocket that injured five civilians in Goma.
Rwanda has called the accusations “absolutely false and diversionary” and said it was “exercising restraint as of now,” according to a military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita. Rwanda’s military accused the Congolese Army of bombing the nearby Rwandan border city of Gisenyi, killing one person and injuring two others.