AFRICA/CONGO DR - Presence of the Shabab in the east of DRC? A missionary calls for caution

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - “The presence of an Islamic group in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is plausible, but up until now we haven't heard any reports of their activities,” Fides was told by Father Loris Cattani, Xaverian missionary and animator of the “Peace Network for the Congo”, commenting on the alarm issued in the course of the second meeting of the Defence and Security Council of the Economic Commission for the Great Lakes Countries on a new alliance of rebbel groups in Kivu (east of the DRC).
According to local press, the alliance may be focused on the FDLR (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda) which is be joined by other rebel groups and an unspecified Islamic group called El Shabab. This term refers to fundamentalist Somali militias, which would have been responsible for a series of attacks in Uganda.
Rwanda has accused its former Army Chief, General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and the former head of the Secret Service in Rwanda, Colonel Patrick Karegeya, of creating an armed group which is acting in concert with the rebel alliance to try to overthrow the Government in Kigali. On 14 January Nyamwasa and Karegeya, along with two other government officials who fell into disgrace, were sentenced to long prison terms in absentia by a Rwandan court.
“The feared Islamic threat and the inclusion in the list of so-called 'negative forces' of Nyamwasa and Karegeya could be a ploy to justify a new intervention by the Rwandan Army in Kivu,” said Fr Cattani. “The Kivu issue revolves around control of its mineral wealth,” recalls the missionary. “The UN experts' report on the DRC of 29 November states this clearly: the various military operations carried out against the FDLR had the unstated purpose to assume control of the mines in the region. These are now controlled by the Congolese army, composed of men from the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), a pro-Rwandan movement,” said Fr Cattani. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 25/1/2011)