Troops loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda clashed with the Congolese army in a town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, leaving at least one government soldier injured, officials said today.
The gunfight on the streets of Sake had stirred fears among aid workers and ordinary Congolese of an advance by Nkunda's troops on the provincial capital Goma, some 20 kilometres (13 miles) to the east.
"The firing has stopped. There are fears and apprehensions. There was a small misunderstanding but there is nothing to worry about," Brig Gen GV Satyanarayana, commander of United Nation's forces in North Kivu, told Reuters from Sake.
With Nkunda's fighters billeted in the same town as the army's 9th brigade, tension has been running high in Sake this week. Congo celebrated its first multiparty elections in more than 40 years on Sunday, aimed at cementing peace after a 1998-2003 war during which Nkunda rebelled against Kinshasa's government.
UN peacekeepers - part of a 17,000 strong force in Congo - were patrolling the town to prevent further hostilities, said Jacqueline Chenard, UN spokeswoman in North Kivu.
Isolated fire fights continued in the hills around the town, she said. Nkunda, from the Tutsi ethnic group that exists in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo, is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Congolese government for alleged atrocities against civilians committed since 2004.
He said last week he was willing to negotiate with the winner of Sunday's historic elections to end his insurgency, but also warned he would fight back if a new elected president tried to defeat him militarily