Congo: 'Goma ceasefire holds'

A Congolese rebel leader has said he is "maintaining" a week-old ceasefire around the eastern city of Goma.

General Laurent Nkunda said it is holding despite clashes with pro-government militia further to the north.

"Yes, it's still being maintained," he said from his hilltop headquarters in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu province.

Earlier, a rebel spokesman had accused Congolese government forces of breaking the ceasefire by attacking rebel positions at Kiwanja, near Rutshuru, 45 miles north of Goma. The army denied this.

A UN military spokesman said fighting which broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resumed between the rebels and Pareco Mai-Mai militiamen, whom the rebels say side with the government.

Gen Nkunda declared a ceasefire last week, halting a major advance towards Goma.

No details of casualties from the latest fighting near Rutshuru were immediately available.

Aid agencies are trying to reach tens of thousands of hungry, frightened civilians in the area who have fled the fighting in other regions.

The conflict is fuelled by festering ethnic hatred left over from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and DRC's civil wars from 1996-2002.

Gen Nkunda claims the DRC's government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped after helping slaughter a half-million Rwandan Tutsis.

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