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| Friday, 24 December 2004 |
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UN troops create buffer zone to halt Congo clashes KILALO, Congo, Thursday (Reuters) United Nations troops deployed amid lush hills in eastern Congo to set up a buffer zone to stop clashes between rival army factions that have uprooted thousands and raised tensions with Rwanda. South African peacekeepers in an armored personnel carrier mounted with machine guns, an all-terrain vehicle and a medical truck drove north from the city of Goma to help secure the zone between the front lines of the two rival forces. "By the end of today, just under 400 men will have been deployed to control the buffer zone," Lieutenant Colonel Victor White told Reuters in the front line town of Kirumba. "This will include physical patrols within the 10-km (six-mile) area and also, from the air, Mi-25s (helicopters) will be monitoring," the South African officer said. The peacekeepers then advanced beyond the front line to set up camp inside the zone, in the village of Kilalo. They used an abandoned school as their base and pitched tents outside. Clashes erupted more than a week ago between troop reinforcements sent by the central government and fighters from RCD-Goma, a faction backed by Rwanda during Congo's five-year war, and which is now meant to be part of the national army. The fighting has uprooted up to 200,000 people, according to U.N. officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In New York, the top U.N. peacekeeper said concerted action by U.N. peacekeepers, international diplomats and officials of Congo's transitional government "have somewhat defused the tension" in the area. |
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