DR CONGO: The UN Security Council met in emergency session yesterday after the Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighbouring Rwanda of sending troops across the border into its territory.
The Kinshasa government has urged the council to hold Rwandan President Paul Kagame "personally responsibly for the attacks on the Democratic Republic of Congo's sovereignty and on the peace process in the region." Congo diplomat Mr Nduku Booto, in a letter sent to the council on Tuesday, also called for UN economic sanctions to be imposed on Mr Kagame and close associates.
Council diplomats said they would hear a briefing from UN peacekeeping officials and discuss the situation behind closed doors before deciding on a response.
"If there is a need for action, we will take action. But no one has yet put forward a proposal," said Algerian ambassador Mr Abdallah Baali, the council president for December.
Although Rwanda informed the UN peacekeeping mission a week ago of its intention to send troops across the border into eastern Congo, there have been conflicting reports on whether such an incursion has taken place.
Earlier, a spokesman for the UN peacekeepers in Congo said they had strong evidence that Rwandan soldiers carrying new military hardware had crossed into the east of the country.
Mr Mamadou Bah, spokesman for the UN mission in Kinshasa, said: "We have more and more corroborating signs tending to establish the presence of Rwandan troops in Congo." .
Rwanda has already invaded Congo twice in the past decade to attack Hutu rebels based there, some of whom took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.