DR Congo rebels say they are at Goma's 'door'
GOMA, DR Congo,
Republic of Congo said Sunday they have reached the "door" of the regional capital Goma.
The DR Congolese army said meanwhile that fighting between its troops and rebels has reached a displaced people's camp near Goma, a claim the rebels denied.
Rebel spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama told AFP that the M23 rebel movement had reached Kibati, which is five kilometres (three miles) from Goma.
"We're at the door... We are not in the city of Goma. It's not our ambition to take Goma. Nevertheless if (President Joseph) Kabila's army attacks us, we will pursue the enemy until it is repelled very far from Goma," Kazarama said.
No comment on the rebel claim could be obtained from the army.
But an army intelligence colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity that fighting between government troops and rebels had reached the displaced people's camp in Kanyarucinya, which is some 10 kilometres from Goma.
"The enemy overtook on the right and all the displaced have left the camp and are apparently now in the city of Goma," the colonel 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 Sud Kivu, he said.
He added that the reinforcements arrived by boat and are just outside Goma.
The M23 denied its forces had arrived at the camp. "No, it's false. We are not near Kanyarucinya camp," Kazarama said.
Kanyarucinya camp hosts between 60,000 and 80,000 people, many of them women and children, according to the United Nations. When fighting resumed between the army and the M23 on Thursday, after a three-month truce, more than 7,000 people returned to the camp.
Fleeing the fighting, hundreds of displaced people -- along with troops who had fled the frontline -- arrived Sunday at the gates of Goma with their personal belongings and their goats as they looked for other camps, an AFP journalist said.
