African News Agency : Welcome

Goma, DR Congo, 27 Nov - (ANA) - Rebel forces have reportedly agreed to withdraw from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma, which they captured last week, despite reports of new fighting in the area.. An emergency meeting of regional leaders on Saturday ordered the M23 rebels to leave Goma by Monday and senior commander Col Antoine Manzi has been quoted as saying they will now do so. Some 500,000 people have fled their homes during seven months of fighting. Both Uganda and Rwanda strongly deny UN accusations that they are backing the M23. M23 military commander Sultani Makenga on Monday flew to Uganda for talks, after which Uganda's chief of defence forces Aronda Nyakayirima told Reuters news agency that he had agreed to withdraw from Goma and the nearby town of Sake, also seized last week, by Tuesday afternoon.Rwanda has sought to justify its backing for previous rebel groups in eastern DR Congo by saying they are the only way of preventing Hutu militias from launching attacks. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame came to power in 1994 at the end of the genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, when many of those who carried out the killing fled into what is now DR Congo. Following the rebel capture of Goma, the largest city in eastern DR Congo, the UN has warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the mineral-rich region. Aid officials said the fighting has made camps for people displaced by earlier conflicts inaccessible, with food and medicines running short. Some five million people died during the 1997-2003 DR Congo conflict, which drew in several regional countries. (ANA)