THE United Nations has urged Congo and Rwanda to hold talks to avoid a war after Kinshasa accused its eastern neighbour of sending troops over the border to back Congolese rebels.
UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are investigating the Congolese allegation that Rwandan army troops this week crossed into North Kivu province to help insurgents led by renegade Tutsi general, Laurent Nkunda.
Rwanda has denied
the accusation, but Congo has asked the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the alleged incursion. The war of words has stoked fears of an escalation of Nkunda's rebellion into a wider conflict.
Marie Okabe, a UN spokeswoman, said: "The secretary-general is following developments in the border areas of the ... Congo with increasing concern.
"The continued fighting … adds to the suffering of the civilian population and risks provoking wider conflict in the region."
At 17,000-strong, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, named Monuc, is the world's biggest such project. The force is checking if Rwandan army regulars are inside North Kivu.
Alan Doss, head of Monuc, said this was not easy in the volatile and rugged border area where ethnic lines are blurred. Nkunda's rebels wear Rwandan uniforms and speak Kinyarwanda, a language used on both sides of the border.
"These are difficult areas," he said. "We're not talking about walking down a main street."
The full article contains 237 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
