Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A joint military operation by U.N. and Congolese troops to rout rebel forces from their strongholds in the Ebola-hit northeast Congo has "achieved quite significant results" and is still under way, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Friday.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix clarified at a news conference that seven U.N. peacekeepers — six from Malawi and one Tanzanian — were killed in attacks and exchanges of fire Wednesday with Allied Democratic Forces rebels along with 12 Congolese soldiers. The Security Council said late Thursday that eight peacekeepers were killed.
Lacroix said the U.N. and Congolese troops faced two separate attacks by ADF fighters near the regional capital, Beni, which is the largest city affected by the current Ebola outbreak and the center of efforts to fight it.
"They returned fire. They repelled the first attack successfully," he said. "But then the armed group reorganized and in the second attack, unfortunately our peacekeepers appear to have been killed and injured."
Lacroix said U.N. and Congolese forces captured an ADF base that was used to attack and threaten Beni.
The U.N. envoy for Congo, Leila Zerrougui, said six ADF combatants were arrested.
She said the U.N. and the Congolese army decided to launch the operation near Beni, where ADF and Mai-Mai rebel groups are especially active, to secure the area to allow medical and humanitarian teams to fight the Ebola outbreak. Attacks against military forces and civilians are complicating the response by health officials who are also meeting community resistance.
Congo's health ministry said last week that the Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases. There have been about 200 deaths since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east.
Eastern Congo, a mineral rich region, is home to many armed groups vying for control.
Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said last week that "no other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing."
He said response teams "have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping" and two members lost their lives in an attack.
The ADF originated in Uganda as a rebel movement against that country's government and carried out deadly bombings in the 1990s. A military campaign there forced them to relocate to eastern Congo.
Zerrougui estimated the ADF had about 500 fighters who have integrated in the area, married Congolese and engaged in illegal mining.
"They consider this is their land and it was given to them" by Congo's late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, she said. Mobutu ruled for more than 30 years and was overthrown in 1997.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
