African leaders failed yesterday to secure a ceasefire in the rebellion against President Laurent Kabila's regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tutsiled rebels, not fighting during peace talks, vowed to intensify their struggle.
The commander of the rebels vowed to continue the war until the insurgents oust President Kabila.
"We are launching operations everywhere - we are continuing the offensive," Commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane told journalists in Kisangani, the country's third-biggest city.
The seven-nation summit, convened in Victoria Falls by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, ended with a new commitment to the search for a ceasefire but without any timetable for ending the conflict which now involves six countries in the region.
A rebel delegation, headed by Mr Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma, deputy president of the Congolese Democratic Coalition, left the summit venue without a face-toface meeting with Mr Kabila and his allies, President Mugabe, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, of Angola, and President Sam Nujoma, of Namibia.
"We are going back home now to do one thing only - to intensify our campaign against Kabila," Mr Ngoma said.
"There will be no ceasefire before Kabila negotiates with us directly," he said as he and his team left the resort in Victoria Falls where the summit was held.
A regional analyst, Mr Greg Mills, said in Johannesburg, South Africa, that the failure of Mr Mugabe's initiative had come as a surprise after preparatory work by leaders at a Non-Aligned Movement summit in South Africa last week.
A South African official said the outcome was a setback after positive signs during the Non-Aligned meeting. However, the fact that Rwanda and Uganda were still part of the peace process was encouraging, he said.
Diplomats in Kinshasa said the city faced a potentially explosive food crisis.
With Mr Mugabe's latest initiative apparently in tatters, the South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, said in Cape Town yesterday he would go ahead with plans for a diplomatic resolution by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) at a Sunday summit.
Mr Kabila's government said yesterday it had asked Zimbabwe to arrest rebel leaders who had attended the peace talks.
Authorities said electricity was restored to the capital Kinshasa yesterday after completion of repairs to the distribution network damaged by the rebels nearly a month ago.