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| Africa Subsaharan |
| U.N. Helicopter Comes under Fire in DR Congo |
| 2013-10-19 |
| [An Nahar] A United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... helicopter came under fire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... on Friday, a U.N. source said, the second such incident in a week. "Two helicopters left on reconnaissance missions this morning ... the pilots of one of the helicopters felt some impacts on the cockpit ... and landed" to inspect the damage, a source close to Monusco, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, told Agence La Belle France Presse. The incident took place some 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of Goma, capital of North Kivu province, which has been in turmoil since warfare ravaged the country from 1996 to 2003. There were no injuries and the helicopter was able to return to base. Last week, Congolese M23 rebels shot at a U.N. helicopter but no one was injured. The M23 was founded by former Tutsi rebels who were incorporated into the Congolese army under a 2009 peace deal. Complaining the deal was never fully implemented, they mutinied in April 2012, turning their guns on their former comrades and launching the latest rebellion to ravage DR Congo's mineral-rich and conflict-prone east. A front man for the rebels, Vianney Kazarama, denied that the M23 was behind the attack. "This morning, the M23 did not fire and did not want to fire on Monusco," said Kazarama, indicating that the shots came from the Congolese army (FARDC). But Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Hamuli, a front man for the army in North Kivu, hit back, saying: "Monoscu is a partner of the FARDC and we are together on the ground. It's the M23 which shot," said Hamuli. |
| Posted by:Fred |