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UN armoured personnel carriers drive towards a UN base in Monigi, 5kms from Goma/AFP

Africa

Ban vows peacekeepers will stay in threatened Goma

An internally displaced Congolese woman carries her belongings as she enters a UN base5km from Goma/AFP


— British, French ‘concern’ —

British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed their deep concern about the violence.

Olivier Hamuli, an army spokesman in Nord Kivu province, told local radio there had been “rough” fighting around the airport.

“Our concern is to avoid a bloodbath in the city,” he said.

But Celestin Sibomana, a spokesman for the province, spoke of “a rout” in comments to AFP, and denounced what he said was the inaction of the UN peacekeepers.

Earlier Sunday, an army intelligence colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity that fighting had reached a displaced people’s camp in Kanyarucinya, 10 kilometres (six miles) from Goma.

“All the displaced have left the camp and are apparently now in the city of Goma,” he said.

“We are trying to defend ourselves. We have hope in the new troops which are starting to arrive from Bukavu,” the capital of the neighbouring province of South Kivu, he said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed the EU’s concern for civilians caught up in the fighting, calling on all sides to give unrestricted access to aid workers.

But the M23 denied its forces had reached the camp.

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The UN Security Council held an emergency session on the crisis on Saturday, demanding an end to the M23 advance and “that any and all outside support and supply of equipment to the M23 cease immediately”.

It also vowed fresh sanctions against M23 leaders and those who help it breach UN sanctions and an arms embargo.

The fighting is the most serious since July, when UN helicopters last went into action against the M23.

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