RWINDI, Congo — Rebels in Congo pulled hundreds of fighters back from several front-line positions as promised Wednesday in what the U.N. said was a welcome step toward brokering peace in the volatile nation.
Elsewhere, however, U.N. forces on patrol exchanged fire with pro-government Mai Mai militiamen who attacked them with machine-gun fire in Kibitutu, a village about 45 miles north of the regional capital, Goma.
Fighting between the army and those loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has displaced at least 250,000 people. Nkunda says he is protecting Tutsis from Hutus who fled to Congo after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. But critics say he is more interested in power and Congo’s mineral wealth.
U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich confirmed Wednesday’s pullback and called it “a positive step.”
