Congo Mai Mai Militias Want To Be Part Of National Army-Radio

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Up to 1,700 Mai Mai militias, operating in Walikale, the main tin mining district in Congo’s North Kivu province, have asked to be integrated into the national army in a bid to improve security in the mineral-rich region, U.N. sponsored Radio Okapi reports Thursday.

Radio Okapi reported that militia leaders have written to the Congolese military in a letter dated Aug. 20 complaining they had waited for four months now to be integrated, a situation that is forcing some of the combatants to defect to the Rwandan Hutu rebels.

Early this month, a group of Mai Mai militias attacked the Bisie tin mine in Walikale, and killed up to 16 miners. The militias also looted mineral ores, mining equipment and money from Congo’s largest tin mine.

Major Sylvain Ekenge, a spokesman for the Congolese army, told Okapi separately that the militias who want to integrate into the national army must follow the right procedures. He said the army had completed the integration process in North Kivu and is now concentrating on South Kivu. The volatile Kivu provinces produce nearly all of Congo’s tin. Congo is Africa’s largest producer of the metal.

-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +256 75 262 4615; bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk