UN brigade’s first clash with M23

GOMA: A new UN combat brigade, formed to try to neutralise armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC) by force if needed, fired artillery at M23 rebels menacing the eastern border city of Goma anew, UN and Congolese military officers said yesterday.

It was the brigade’s first clash with M23 in support of government forces in the DRC. The UN force, composed of Tanzanian, South African and Malawian soldiers, was created by the UN Security Council in March.

Fighting entered a third successive day near Goma, a city of about a million people on the Rwandan border, after a relative lull in the 18-month-old M23 rebellion. Goma was briefly seized by the M23 last year and the UN pledged in July to prevent the rebels from getting back within range of the city.

But this week the rebels entered a security zone ringing Goma that had been established by the robustly man- dated UN Intervention Brigade this month, and at least two people were killed when three shells landed in the city centre.

UN Lieutenant- Colonel Felix Basse said another M23 shell crashed near Munigi on Goma’s outskirts, where a UN peacekeepers’ base is located, causing civilian casualties.

Clashes between M23 and the Congolese army continued early yesterday.

An M23 spokesman did not confirm yesterday that they had been fired on by UN peacekeeping troops, and said the group was trying to avoid direct clashes with them. “It’s not just the brigade we’re trying to avoid fighting but the FARDC (DRC army) too”

A South African military spokesman said the country’s troops had not clashed with M23. The office of President Jacob Zuma yesterday said that Zuma had informed Parliament of the demployment of 1 345 members of the South African National Defence Force for service in the DRC. – Reuters