Six killed as DR Congo rebels clash

Fighting among armed businesses in DR Congo’s afflicted east has left six lifeless, simply days after the first spherical of peace talks ended, neighborhood sources and a researcher said on Monday.

Clashes in South Kivu province’s Fizi territory on Saturday pitted corporations from the Banyamulenge, a Congolese Tutsi community, in opposition to an ethnic defense force called the Biloze Bishambuke Self-Defence Force, or FABB.

Scores of rebel groups are active in the east of the vast Democratic Republic of Congo, many of them a legacy of two regional wars a quarter of a century ago.

Gady Mukiza, administrative head of Minembwe district, said “FABB elements reacted to what they considered to be a provocation” by three groups of Banyamulenge forces accused of seizing two villages in a traditionally neutral zone.

In addition to the six killed, several people were wounded, Mukiza said.

Two of the three Banyamulenge groups — the Twirwaneho and Ngumino factions — attended peace talks in Nairobi last week.

Nearly 30 delegates representing a number of armed groups in Ituri, North, and South Kivu provinces joined the parlay, along with envoys sent by President Felix Tshisekedi.

The five-day session, which ended on Wednesday, is expected to be followed by more talks in the coming weeks.

“The Nairobi meetings, unfortunately, cannot put a stop to clashes between armed groups on Fizi territory,” said Josaphat Musamba, a researcher at Bukavu’s Institute of Higher Education.

“The Congolese state is asking armed groups… to join the disarmament and rehabilitation program” but in Fizi, groups are battling to “occupy territory.”

Muamba added that FABB was apparently angry that it had not been invited to the Nairobi talks.

Millions of human beings died from violence, disease, or hunger in the 1996-7 and 1998-2003 Congo Wars.

The battle enmeshed international locations from around east and imperative Africa and spawned myriad rebel agencies, which usually declare to shield the pursuits of ethnic groups.