A United Nations helicopter circles overhead as U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay patrol in a show of force to reassure the local population, in Goma, eastern Congo, Friday, July 13, 2012.KINSHASA, Congo – Soldiers backed by U.N. helicopter gunships battled rebels around a strategic army garrison near a mountain gorilla reserve in eastern Congo, as thousands of people continued to flee a 3-month-old rebellion allegedly backed by neighboring Rwanda.
U.N. Radio Okapi said the rebels Thursday began attacking Rumangabo military camp, which the soldiers had only retaken from the M23 rebel group on Wednesday. The camp is a mile (kilometer) from the headquarters of the Virunga National Park, whose rangers were forced to flee by fighting earlier this month.
The radio station said the rebels continue to hold Rutshuru town and nearby Kiwanja, and that thousands of people had fled in recent days. More than 260,000 civilians have been forced from their homes in recent months, according to U.N. agencies, some across the borders to Uganda and Rwanda, others toward the southern provincial capital of Goma.
Maj. Olivier Hamuli, an army spokesman, said soldiers made a strategic retreat from Rutshuru “to avoid a bloodbath” of civilians.
“Actually the operations at the front are running well,” he said by telephone late Wednesday. Hamuli said soldiers had retaken several other villages by Wednesday evening, including Bukima, which he described as a rebel training center for young recruits.