Congo Denies Rebel Attack Accusations

The government on Wednesday denied rebel accusations that it has launched attacks on all fronts, claiming that the rebels were the ones violating a shaky cease-fire.

The rebel Congolese National Army claimed in a statement Tuesday that government forces and their Zimbabwean allies had launched a counteroffensive a week after the Rwandan-backed rebels took Idumbe, 375 miles east of the capital, Kinshasa.

“We have not launched a total offensive,” Foreign Affairs Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia said at a news briefing, countering that rebel forces had occupied four cities in government territory since Saturday. He did not identify the cities.

Neither the government’s nor the rebels’ claims could be independently verified.

The U.N. Security Council warned Wednesday that peacekeeping monitors that were promised in the cease-fire deal couldn’t be deployed in the midst of new hostilities.

The council president, Bangladeshi Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, said ambassadors wanted to send a message that such violations would have serious implications for the mission.

“If you want deployment [of the monitors], hostilities must stop,” he said.

The council made known its concern in a statement issued after a closed-door briefing by Hedi Annabi, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations.

“Council members expressed their dismay at the new offensive launched in the province of Kasai, which resulted in the seizure of the town of Idumbe,” Chowdhury told reporters.

He did not say which of the many parties involved in the conflict was responsible for the renewed fighting.

The council statement said members were also “deeply concerned about the continued fighting in the provinces of Equator, Katanga and Kivu and reports of widespread preparations being made for further military action,” including training and significant rearmament.

The council has said in the past that deployment of the 5,500-strong U.N. Mission in Congo, including 500 military observers, depended on the willingness of all sides to respect last year’s cease-fire agreement.

The deal was signed July 10 by President Laurent Kabila and his allies--Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia--and by Rwanda and Uganda, who are backing the rebels. The main rebel factions signed on in the weeks that followed.

Fighting continues, however, with both sides repeatedly accusing each other of violating the accord.