Fierce fighting resumes in eastern DR Congo

Fresh fighting flared in the resource-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Thursday, with government forces backed by UN troops shelling rebels near Goma and tensions spilling over into neighbouring Rwanda. Artillery fire could be heard around Kibati north of Goma, the capital of the turbulent North Kivu province, where the DR Congo army and a newly-formed UN intervention brigade have been battling M23 rebels for a week. A Rwandan woman was also killed and her baby injured in what the country alleged was "deliberate" cross-border shelling by the DR Congo army. Tensions are already high along the border, with the United Nations and Kinshasa accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23, a charge that Kigali denies. Western military sources who asked not to be named said that the latest clashes could be a prelude to a full-on assault by the army and UN troops. They have an unprecedented mandate to take the offensive against the armed movements long active in the mineral-rich but impoverished Kivu region. The two eastern Kivu provinces, North and South, have been chronically unstable since two wars wracked the vast country between 1996 and 2003, drawing in armies from neighbouring and southern African countries, who fought in part over access to vast mineral wealth. All flights to Goma, a city of a million people that was occupied by M23 for 10 days last November, have been suspended since the outlying airport is vulnerable, said a source in MONUSCO, the UN mission in the country. On Wednesday a UN soldier from Tanzania was killed in the fighting, UN and military sources said. In New York, France on Thursday sought an emergency UN Security Council meeting over the crisis. But there are mounting diplomatic tensions, with Rwanda -- a temporary Security Council member -- blocking a bid to impose UN sanctions on two M23 leaders as well as a council press statement condemning the death of the Tanzanian peacekeeper, diplomats said. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo also issued a furious statement condemning the DR Congo army, accused of firing on Rwanda and supporting Hutu rebels involved in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. "We have remained restrained for as long as we can but this provocation can no longer be tolerated. We have the capacity to determine who fired at us and will not hesitate to defend our territory. Rwanda has a responsibility to protect its population," she said. On Thursday, officials said a shell hit the Rwandan town of Rubavu, situated adjacent to Goma. "A shell landed in town and killed a woman and seriously wounded her child," the deputy mayor of Rubavu, Ezechiel Nsengiyumva Buntu, told AFP. The UN intervention force is using attack helicopters and mortars in the Kibati hills, while firing on other rebel positions with heavy artillery, according to MONUSCO spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai. UN-deployed South African snipers have also reported killing six M23 rebels. The M23 rebels have emerged as one of the most formidable forces operating in the DR Congo's east. They accuse the Kinshasa government of reneging on a 2009 peace pact and a deal to hold direct talks, and have threatened to attack Goma again. "We hit targets on at least six occasions with snipers," said South African Defence Union national secretary Pikkie Greeff. "We got six kills, to put it coarsely." President Jacob Zuma confirmed three South African soldiers had been injured in the clashes. "Three of our soldiers have been injured in the conflict since the weekend, largely from shrapnel wounds. None have been seriously wounded." Four shells fell early Wednesday night on Goma, two of them striking the area where the airport lies east of the city, but nobody could say who fired them. Residents said shellfire killed one person and wounded about 15 others in the north of the city.