Nkunda warns against Angolan troop intervention in DR Congo

AFRICA NEWS

EU states mull leaving Chad troops for UN force
European countries with troops in Chad are debating whether to transfer them to a UN peacekeeping force due to take over in March, the EU's French presidency said Friday. "We have to do everything we can to ensure that the transition happens as smoothly as possible," said a diplomat from France, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency until the end of the year. In September, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending until March 15, 2009, the mandate of the UN mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). The French-sponsored resolution also said the 15-member Council planned to authorise the deployment of a UN military component to follow up the European EUFOR mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, as recommended by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. EU defence ministers, meeting in Brussels Monday, will be asked if they are ready for the European force to operate under a UN flag, the diplomat said, on condition of anonymity. EUFOR began a year-long mission in March to protect refugees from western Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region as well as people displaced by the rebel insurgency in Chad and the north of Central African Republic. The force is comprised of around 3,300 soldiers drawn from 14 countries and many nations have said they would be prepared to stay, including France whose troops make up around half the contingent. In eastern Chad, carjackings, armed robberies and crime targeting national and international humanitarian staff continue, impeding efforts to help nearly 300,000 refugees and almost 200,000 internally displaced persons.

by Staff Writers
Goma (AFP) Nov 9, 2008
Laurent Nkunda's rebel group warned Sunday that any decision by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to accept Angolan military assistance could ignite the Great Lakes region.

"It would risk setting the Great Lakes region on fire," said Bertrand Bisimwa, a spokesman for the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) led by renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda.

"It demonstrates the government's willingness to involve former international warmongers in the current crisis.

"The government should favour political solutions, by engaging in talks with the CNDP, over military solutions. The country's population is already suffering because of this," he added.

Bisimwa's reaction comes after DR Congo's foreign minister admitted Sunday that while Angola had not yet deployed any troops into the country, it could do so in the future.

"For the moment, there aren't any, but the Angolan position without any doubt is to support Congo," Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said at an emergency summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), called to consider the unrest in the DR Congo and the political standoff in Zimbabwe.

Both Angola and Congo are members of the 15-nation bloc, and Luanda sided with Kinshasa in the 1998-2003 regional conflict that erupted in the country then known as Zaire.

Kinshasa has repeatedly denied that foreign troops are on its soil to support pro-government troops battling Nkunda's rebel forces -- an assertion echoed by the UN mission, which has 17,000 blue-helmeted peacekeepers on the ground.

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AFRICA NEWS

Ivory auctions raise 15,4-million for elephant conservation: CITES

Johannesburg (AFP) Nov 7, 2008
A one-off auction of stockpiled ivory in four southern African countries raised 15,4 million dollars (12 million euros) for elephant conservation, an international watchdog said Friday.

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