40 Burundi rebels killed in east DR Congo, A Congolese army spokesman reported on Sunday that forty Burundian rebels had been killed in a joint offensive by the militaries of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the eastern DRC.
40 Burundi rebels killed in east DR Congo
The two armies “carried out a high-intensity offensive operation” against Burundian rebels of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), Lieutenant Marc Elongo-Kyondwa said in a statement. The enemy “suffered a heavy loss of men and equipment: 40 attackers neutralised (killed),” he said.
The two armies “dislodged” the FNL “from all the four hills overlooking the town of Nabombi,” considered a command post of the FNL’s self-proclaimed general Aloys Nzabampema, he added. The Congolese army called on local people to cooperate with the regular forces and “young people to dissociate themselves from armed groups”, the statement quoted Congolese General Major Ramazani Fundi, commander of operations in the southern part of the province, as saying.
The FNL is a branch of Agathon Rwasa’s former rebel group, now the main political opposition in Burundi. Since August, Burundian soldiers charged with fighting armed groups have been officially present in DRC’s South Kivu region, as part of the Community of East African States (EAC) force.
In June, the EAC planned to establish a regional force made up of the armies of Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Burundians, and Congolese soldiers in Haut-Uele, North Kivu, and Ituri. Kinshasa has rejected Kigali’s request to join the army, claiming that Kigali actively supports the M23 rebels in North Kivu. The east of the DRC has been plagued by violent armed groups for almost 30 years; some are local, while others are militias from surrounding nations.