KINSHASA -- A United Nations peacekeeper
from India, soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (FARDC) and leaders of a Ugandan rebel movement were among the
scores of people killed as the Congolese troops took back nine localities
in the troubled eastern region of the country.
The Indian peacekeeper who died Sunday
was one of 1,000 MONUC forces supporting about 4,000 national Armed Forces
of DRC (FARDC) troops, who have been conducting operations against armed
rebel groups so as to restore the authority of the Congolese State. Another
four peacekeepers were wounded, with one of the four having been seriously
wounded.
The operation, called "Ituri Eden," began north of the Ituri district's capital of Bunia against the armed group headed by Peter Karim Udaga, a former leader of the predominantly ethnic Lendu militia, the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), according to MONUC.
Some 1,500 FARDC soldiers, supported by 300 Nepalese peacekeepers, have been involved in the operation, pushing forces loyal to Karim in a northeasterly direction towards the Ugandan border. Several of Karim's followers were killed in firefights, the town of Nioka was cleared of armed former militiamen, and two of Karim's bodyguards were captured, in addition to 17 weapons and a truck loaded with precious woods.
The FARDC casualties totalled 16 wounded and six dead, while the armed rebel groups were believed to have sustained around 90 casualties.
MONUC General Narena Satiya said that two rebel leaders, whom he named as Parada and Amosi, were killed, another called Bosco fled into the hills of Ruhengeri, while a fourth, Luini, was seriously wounded.
