DRC combatants suffer heavy casualties

Fighting between government forces and M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo has entered its fifth day, with both sides suffering heavy casualties, a doctor near the front line says. Dr Isaac Warwanamiza said he had seen 82 bodies since early on Sunday, 23 of whom were government soldiers, the Associated Press news agency said. The fighting in Goma, North Kivu province's largest city, has drawn UN troops from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania who are now fighting alongside the DRC army. The 3,000-strong intervention brigade, set up by the UN Security Council in March, is entrusted with neutralising armed groups and militias in DRC's volatile east who are threatening civilians. Warwanamiza said medical services were struggling to cope with the scale of the casualties among government troops and the M23 fighters who launched their rebellion last year. "I'm overwhelmed by what I've seen: bodies blown apart, arms and feet here and there," he said, speaking by phone from a hospital north of Goma. 'Colonels' killed Three UN peacekeepers were wounded on Saturday in the fighting, though no injuries were immediately reported by the UN peacekeeping mission. A UN official said that two M23 "colonels" had been killed since Wednesday, while the DRC military had not lost any senior officers. The fighting has drawn condemnation from the US, which said it was alarmed by the escalating violence, and again called on neighbouring Rwanda to stop supporting the rebels. The State Department also expressed concern over reports by the UN of shelling by the M23 into Rwanda territory. "We urgently call on [the] DRC and Rwandan governments to exercise restraint to prevent military escalation of the conflict or any action that puts civilians at risk," Marie Harf, the department's spokesman, said in a statement. "We are deeply concerned about evidence of increasing ethnic tensions in Goma and call on all parties to avoid any actions that could exacerbate such tensions." The spokeswoman praised UN efforts to protect civilians, after the world body announced it had opened a probe into accusations by residents that peacekeepers killed two people who tried to storm its Goma base during a protest. Targeted sanctions Harf said the US was ready to consider further targeted sanctions against M23 rebel leaders and other armed groups. Some M23 leaders are already subject to Security Council sanctions. The US urged the UN mission in DRC, MONUSCO, to investigate charges of cross-border shelling. Rwanda said five mortar bombs had fallen on Rwandan villages on Friday, following a rocket the previous day, and blamed DRC's army. Rwanda twice invaded its larger neighbour in the 1990s and sponsored rebels trying to topple the Kinshasa government. Millions have died since then in DRC's eastern border area, a patchwork of rebel and militia fiefdoms in an area rich in tin as well as tungsten and coltan ores. A UN report in June said the M23 recruited fighters in Rwanda with the aid of sympathetic Rwandan army officers, while elements of the DRC army have cooperated with the Rwandan Hutu rebel group FDLR, which Rwanda denies.

Source: Agencies