GEMENA, DR Congo — Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers have retaken contro
l of Dongo in the country's north-west, where recent tribal clashes have forced thousands to flee, the government said Monday.
"Since noon (1100 GMT) on Sunday, the army has retaken Dongo, after very fierce resistance from the attackers led by the animist priest Udjani" in several villages to the east of Dongo, government spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP.
Both the army and the UN mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) sent reinforcements after fighting broke out late in October in Equateur province between Udjani's Lobala (or Enyele) tribe, which has been joined by former soldiers and the Bomboma people.
The violence has claimed at least 100 lives, mostly in and around Dongo where the clashes began. Dongo is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Gemena, the main town in the Sud-Oubangui district.
At least 115,000 villagers have fled the unrest, more than 77,000 of them across the Oubangui river into the neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
MONUC and officials in Gemena confirmed that Dongo had been taken.
"The army and the police are going to continue operations and lay their hands on the rest of the insurgents, who are on the run, to bring them to justice," said Mende, who is also communications minister.
Dongo had been abandoned to insurgents after a November 26 attack on the police and a score of Ghanaian troops in the UN peacekeeping mission. A UN helicopter taking in supplies came under fire and three UN troops were badly wounded.
The Congolese army (FARDC) encountered no resistance inside Dongo, where the Lobala led by the animist priest, Udjani, started the fighting against members of the Bombona community at the end of October.
The strife spread across a region where the two tribes are at odds over rich fishing waters.
At the beginning of last week, Congolese commandos recaptured the villages of Bobito, Bozene and Tandala, east of Dongo, in heavy fighting with the insurgents. All these villages were largely abandoned by their populations.
The army said that it had lost five men, killed about 60 of the insurgents and taken several prisoners.
Witnesses told AFP in Bobito on Saturday that civilians had also been killed, notably a teacher, a father and his son, and a trader from Kinshasa.
On December 8, Udjani took about 40 of his men wounded by bullets to the hospital in Tandala for treatment, before going off with them and about 50 other fighters in the direction of Dongo.
Most were aged between 20 and 30, barefoot and armed with Kalashnikovs or knives, witnesses said.
MONUC, which is providing logistical support for the Congolese army, has deployed at Gemena and established a small base at Bozene. UN forces "could soon go to Dongo," a UN military source told AFP.
Copyright © 2009 AFP
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