Congolese soldiers killed at least nine people and looted homes and stores in overnight violence that terrorised residents of the eastern provincial capital Goma.
The city is besieged by rebels, according to UN radio. But army Colonel Jonas Padiri, a senior commander, said the situation was calm this morning and that his men were in control.
Soldiers were patrolling the city in trucks; one soldier, sitting by the side of the road, wore a Darth Vader mask. Some soldiers appeared drunk at 8am.
Asked whether the army would respect the ceasefire called by the rebels last night, Col Padiri said: “You’re going to have to ask the governor that.”
UN Radio Okapi quoted an unidentified official as saying the government had not been officially informed of the cease-fire but is “always open to dialogue.” Col Padiri said at least five people were killed by “thieves.”
The UN radio station said soldiers looted homes and shops, killed nine people, injured three and raped three girls.
Airlines cancelled flights to Goma, as did the United Nations, whose staff were holed up in one of its lakeside compounds.
People thronged the city’s streets Thursday morning, looking worried and asking for information, though police officers in a Jeep circulated with a megaphone urging them to stay home. Shops were shuttered and schools closed.
UN troops patrolling in armoured cars were cheered wildly by residents of Goma who earlier this week attacked UN compounds with rocks to vent their outrage that the peacekeepers were not halting the rebel advance.
The rebels said they were at the gates of Goma, but Col Padiri claimed his men had recaptured the nearby village of Kibati.
Hours earlier, firing wildly, Congolese soldiers commandeered cars, taxis and motorbikes in a retreat from advancing rebel fighters, joining tens of thousands of terrified refugees struggling to stay ahead of the violence. Gunfire crackled through the night.
The UN says its biggest peacekeeping mission — a 17,000-strong force — is now stretched to the limit with the surge in fighting and needs more troops quickly.
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uruguay and South Africa are the main contributors to the existing force.
The unrest in eastern Congo has been fuelled by festering hatreds left over from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which half a million Tutsis were slaughtered. More than a million Hutu extremists fled to Congo where they regrouped in a brutal militia that helps fuel the continuing conflict in Congo.
AP