DR Congo: M23 Rebels Declare Ceasefire

Kinshasa---M23 Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a unilateral ceasefire ahead of the next round of peace talks with the Kinshasa government. The announcement was made at a news conference held in the Ugandan capital of Kampala where the rebel movement said they hoped the DR Congo government to follow suit. Last month both sides held talks in an attempt to end the conflict in eastern region of the country that has seen up to 800,000 people displaced when the rebel movement took up arms in April.

"We've been for peace... "We've been for peace... today we're declaring that we're in a ceasefire," M23 spokesman Francois Rucogoza said during the news conference in Kampala.

"Even if the government refuses to sign a ceasefire agreement we'll continue with the negotiations," he added.

The government has said it does not have much confidence in the rebel ceasefire and will wait and see whether if they will honour their avowal.

"We don't think we can see this as a concession from people who don't tend to do what they say. We'll wait and see. We want to know why [they've made the announcement]," Government spokesman Lambert Mende, was quoted by the Reuters news agency saying.

Following breaking of ranks in the Congolese FARDC army, the renegade soldiers under General Bosco Ntaganda, have been fighting government troops in east of the country, advancing through towns in the mineral rich region and eventually captured the regional capital of Goma.

The group has since pulled out from Goma following regional mediated negotiations that seek to end the protracted conflict.

M23 movement derives its name from the March 2009 peace deal that saw rebel groups integrated into the national army and eventually ending the region’s most dreaded rebellion. Their deserting the army last year was over claims of failure by the government to honour the deal.

Meanwhile the UN peacekeeping department has asked the Security Council to support the use of surveillance drones to monitor the vast eastern Congo border, in what has been said would bolster peacekeeping operations in the area.

Rwanda which has been accused of backing the rebels opposes the introduction of the drones in the DRC setting in more suspicions. A buildup report by the UN on the conflict in eastern DR Congo released in November, asserts that both Rwanda and Uganda have been supporting M23, saying army units from both countries have helped the group expand its control of territory in Eastern DRC. Both Rwanda and Uganda have denied the charges.

Nairobi, Kenya

Several Killed in Fresh Coastal Violence

More than seven people are feared to have been killed in the latest ethnic violence in the distraught Tana Delta area in south-eastern Kenya, police and local officials have reported.

Wednesday night’s fighting was reported to have taken place in the village of Nduru in Tana Delta in renewed ethnic clashes. The farming Pokomo and the nomadic Orma ethnic communities have been locked in deadly proxy attacks in the long-standing hostility over access of the area’s fertile land and water from the Tana River.

A local government official told al-Jazeera news agency that the violence was sparked when armed raiders from the Pokomo community raided a village held by the rival Orma community, killing five villagers. In addition two of the raiders were killed in the attack.

A senior police officer in the area said nine other people were wounded and had been taken to hospital. Kenya’s Red Cross officials confirmed that there had been “fresh clashes” in the region, saying that three of the critically wounded had been taken to hospital by their medical team.

Over 140 people have been killed since the clashes began last year in the repeated retaliatory attacks between the two communities. In 2001 a spate of clashes in the same area between the two communities left at least 130 people dead. 

The clashes have raised concerns over security and lack of police capacity in volatile areas ahead of the general elections due in two months, in fear of previous elections five years ago that saw deadly post-poll killings over election irregularities.

President Mwai Kibaki has commissioned a judicial inquiry into the violence and to review options on ending the clashes.

Violence in the area said to be linked to political incitement that has been fuelled by proliferation of arms smuggled into the region from bordering lawless state of Somalia.