33 killed in Congo fighting

Kigali - Fresh fighting in the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least 33 people dead, rebel …

Kigali - Fresh fighting in the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least 33 people dead, rebel officials said yesterday.

Mr Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, who heads the Ugandanbacked rebel faction RCD-ML, said at least 19 Mai Mai militiamen died on Monday when they attacked his forces at Butembo, a small town on Congo's north-eastern border with Uganda.

In a separate incident yesterday near the Congo-Burundi border, Mai Mai fighters ambushed a truck carrying civilians to a local market and killed 14 people, another rebel official said.