Rival poses problems for DR Congo rebel leader
-
-
- birthrightx
- added this
KINSHASA (AFP) – Congolese rebels postponed Wednesday a meeting of their high command after an open challenge to Laurent Nkunda threatened to complicate the search for a solution to the conflict in the country's east.
A move to oust Nkunda was launched by chief of staff Bosco Ntaganda, but their relative positions remained unchanged ahead of an emergency meeting of the rebels' high command which was postponed till Thursday.
Ntaganda signed a statement on Monday that Nkunda had been dismissed as leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) for "poor leadership" and "bad governance". The CNDP later denied that.
UN peacekeepers were alerted to the possibility of clashes between rival rebel factions, but no fighting was reported after apparent efforts to lower tensions inside the rebel camp.
"There's little chance it will degenerate," said Stewart Scott, Nkunda's biographer. "The situation seems to have settled. Everyone now wants to calm things down."
Ntaganda was accused of "high treason" for his affront to Nkunda, but despite this he remains the rebel chief of staff, a CNDP spokesman said Wednesday.
Nkunda was expected to chair a delayed meeting of the high command in Rutshuru, north of Goma, now scheduled for Thursday, to discuss the general's fate.
"We are favouring dialogue," Serge Kambasu Ngeve, deputy executive secretary of the CNDP, told AFP. "We have to listen to everyone to resolve the problem... There are sentiments, discontent, that we cannot ignore."
The rebels' woes were being regarded with a mixture of suspicion and derision by the government in Kinshasa
A move to oust Nkunda was launched by chief of staff Bosco Ntaganda, but their relative positions remained unchanged ahead of an emergency meeting of the rebels' high command which was postponed till Thursday.
Ntaganda signed a statement on Monday that Nkunda had been dismissed as leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) for "poor leadership" and "bad governance". The CNDP later denied that.
UN peacekeepers were alerted to the possibility of clashes between rival rebel factions, but no fighting was reported after apparent efforts to lower tensions inside the rebel camp.
"There's little chance it will degenerate," said Stewart Scott, Nkunda's biographer. "The situation seems to have settled. Everyone now wants to calm things down."
Ntaganda was accused of "high treason" for his affront to Nkunda, but despite this he remains the rebel chief of staff, a CNDP spokesman said Wednesday.
Nkunda was expected to chair a delayed meeting of the high command in Rutshuru, north of Goma, now scheduled for Thursday, to discuss the general's fate.
"We are favouring dialogue," Serge Kambasu Ngeve, deputy executive secretary of the CNDP, told AFP. "We have to listen to everyone to resolve the problem... There are sentiments, discontent, that we cannot ignore."
The rebels' woes were being regarded with a mixture of suspicion and derision by the government in Kinshasa
