afrol News, 3 October - Congolese rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda has called on Congo nationals to stand up against government, saying fighting would liberate the country.

"I call on all the active forces, all the Congolese, to stand up to government that has betrayed all its people," said Mr Nkunda, head of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

He has been claiming to be protecting his Tutsi people against Rwandan Hutu armed groups in the east.

General Nkunda says he wants to expand his theatre of operations for his CNDP forces from eastern DR Congo to the whole country. "We are going to liberate the people of Congo," General Nkunda told BBC.

He also claims they are under threat from some of those who carried out the genocide of their fellow Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda 14 years ago.

Renewed fighting broke out 28 August in eastern DR Congo, with government troops and Nkunda's rebels violating ceasefire reached under Goma peace accord in January.

The latest fighting has forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes over the past month alone, according to Red Cross.

Meanwhile, United Nations helicopters firing rockets to rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after rebels attempted to advance against Government.

UN action was the latest in a series of strikes against the rebel Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front (FRPI) in Ituri province, and comes less than two weeks after peacekeepers from the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) sent in combat helicopters against another rebel group in North Kivu province, to the south.

“MONUC is intervening with all the means at its disposal, including attack helicopters, to protect the civilian population which is in imminent danger,” the mission said in a news release.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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