KINSHASA, Congo — Rwandan and Congolese troops exchanged fire with Rwandan Hutu militiamen in eastern Congo on Saturday, killing nine in the first fighting reported since a joint military operation began last week, the U.N. said.
The skirmish took place around Lubero, west of Lake Edward, said U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Lt. Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich. The U.N. is not involved in the operation, and no details were immediately available.
Rwanda and Congo have been enemies for years, but the two neighbors changed tactics and began cooperating in an effort to disarm the rival militia groups each nation has backed as proxies.
Eastern Congo has been racked by violence since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide spilled war across the border and Hutu militias who participated in the massacres of more than 500,000 mostly ethnic Tutsi civilians sought refuge in Congo.
Rwanda invaded twice in the 1990s to eradicate the Hutu militias — though it was accused of plundering Congo’s vast mineral wealth instead. The presence of the Hutu militias in Congo gave birth in 2004 to a Tutsi rebellion led by Laurent Nkunda, who was allied to Rwanda and claimed he was defending minority Tutsis against Hutus. The Associated Press
