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World: Africa
Congo deal to be signed on Saturday
The conflict has threatened stability in central Africa
The peace deal to end the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to be signed on Saturday.
"On Saturday this week African heads of state, plus the belligerents in the Congo war, will meet in Lusaka to sign a very comprehensive ceasefire agreement," Zambian President Frederik Chiluba told a news conference.
President Chiluba's government has hosted the talks over the past 12 days, which led to the ceasefire agreement between the Congo government and rebel forces.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the ceasefire agreement.
"This is an important and welcome step towards the restoration of peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the Great Lakes region of Africa," he said.
Mr Annan also called on the warring parties to declare an immediate cessation of hostilities pending the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement.
UN promises observers and peacekeepers
"As soon as an agreement is signed we will deploy observers, perhaps as many as 500 men and women," he said.
"Afterwards, we will send a peacekeeping force. It may take three months but it can be earlier than that if the African countries help us."
Mr Annan said a technical survey team was being dispatched to the Democratic Republic of Congo this week to assess the feasibility of deploying the observers.
He gave an assurance that the UN would spare no effort in mobilising the international community to assist the people of the region in their efforts to achieve reconciliation, reconstruction and development.
Fighting goes on
All sides involved in the 11-month war in the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed on a draft ceasefire on Wednesday.
Click here to read the main points of the agreement.
The agreement calls for
An end to hostilities
The deployment of a peacekeeping force
The disarmament of armed Hutu extremists.
But as the talks drew to a conclusion, fighting in Congo was reported to have intensified.
A Rwandan army commander in eastern Congo said his units had killed more than 60 government troops and allied Burundian Hutu rebels in a two-day operation between the towns of Uvira and Baraka.
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an undetermined number of government soldiers had escaped. His claims have not been independently verified. |
