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           UN Troops Start Operations Against Congo's Rwandan Rebels

   by Reuters

   United Nations peacekeeping troops in Democratic Republic of Congo have
   launched operations against a Rwandan Hutu rebel militia operating
   along Congo's border with Rwanda, the U.N. commander said on Tuesday.

   Defeating Rwandan FDLR insurgents, who have long been used as a pretext
   for intervention in Congo by neighboring Rwanda, is seen as the next
   step in ending decades of conflict along the veteran foes' shared
   border, weeks after the Congolese Tutsi-led M23 rebels were defeated.

   General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz said on U.N.-backed Radio Okapi
   on Tuesday that his troops would attack the FDLR rebel forces in a bid
   to secure a road between the eastern Congolese towns of Kitchanga and
   Pinga.

   "Everyone knows that the presence of armed groups along the border
   creates problems with the neighboring states," he said.

   In November, U.N. soldiers in a newly formed intervention brigade with
   a robust mandate supported the Congolese army with artillery and attack
   helicopters in defeating the M23 rebellion, the most serious in Congo
   in the last decade.

   The brigade, made up of troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi,
   will also lead operations against the FDLR, which has launched sporadic
   attacks in Rwanda in an attempt to destabilize Rwandan President Paul
   Kagame's government.

   The FDLR, is a Hutu, anti-Kigali rebel group sprung from militias
   operating out of eastern Congo since fleeing the 1994 genoocide of
   800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus.

   "We have already intensified patrols and observation along the border
   and we are planning operations against all rebel positions along the
   frontier," Dos Santos Cruz added.

   At the start of December, the U.N. also unveiled surveillance drones
   that it will use to monitor the volatile border between Congo and its
   neighbors Rwanda and Uganda.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/un-troops-start-operations-against-co
   ngo-rwandan-rebels/1807702.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/un-troops-start-operations-against-congo-rwandan-rebels/1807702.html