Congolese rebels said Tuesday they were pulling back their forces to allow talks with the army, whose soldiers were fleeing and even fighting their own allies as any lingering army control in the area disintegrated. Fighting Tuesday took place around Kanyabayonga, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of the regional capital, Goma. Clashes between fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda on one side and the army and its allied spear-wielding militias on the other exploded in August and have displaced at least 250,000 people.
Nkunda launched a rebellion in 2004, claiming to protect ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide left more than 500,000 Tutsis and others slaughtered. But critics say Nkunda is more interested in power and Congo's mineral wealth than in protecting his people.