AFRICA/D. R. CONGO - Tension rises again in east Congo, one cause is exploitation of oil

Tuesday, 25 September 2007

Bukavu (Agenzia Fides) - There is concern for a possible worsening of the situation in eastern North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where fresh fighting between the regular army and rebels led by Laurent Nkunda threaten the fragile treaty which has held for two weeks (Fides 18 September 2007).
The army said its positions in the region were attacked by militiamen of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a movement led by Nkunda, while the latter blames the army for starting hostilities. UN peacekeepers in Congo (MONUC) back the government's version.
Conflict in recent months has caused at least 300,000 people to abandon their homes and villages. UN humanitarian agencies have denounced forced recruitment of boys and girls in the ranks of various groups of combatants.
The situation in the east of Democratic Congo is so serious that the UN general under-secretary for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, said the Congolese crisis needs the same attention on the part of the international community as that of Darfur. Holmes warned that “fresh fighting could have catastrophic consequences on the humanitarian level” and that “there is need of urgent and united political and diplomatic action”.
As local sources have so often said, the situation of insecurity in Congo hides the aims and interests of foreign subjects with regard to the country's resources. Besides gold, diamonds, coltan, uranium and timber, Congo's oil is starting to be exploited. Connected with the question of working newly discovered oil fields is another serious episode which happened on Lake Albert, on the border with Uganda. The incident occurred when a MONUC patrol confiscated a boat belonging to an oil company with a regular Ugandan exploratory permit. The Ugandans sent another boat to help but it was intercepted by the Congolese and in the exchange of fire two military on each side were killed.
The incident took place 30 km north of the disputed island of Rukwanzi, claimed by Uganda and DRC. In this same area on 3 August a British employee of the same company was killed in a similar episode. MONUC says it intervened when the explorative boat was about to enter Congolese waters. The crew was later released.
The government of Congo accuses the company of illegal oil prospecting on its territory. Two weeks ago the presidents of Uganda and DRC meeting in Tanzania agreed to reduce tension on the border between the two countries and to share the area's oil resources. The heads of state also decided to de-militarise Rukwanzi and to entrust the delimitation of borders to a committee of experts on the basis of an agreement reached in 1915 between British and Belgian colonial administrations. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 25/9/2007 righe 38 parole 496)


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