There are reports of leaflets being circulated in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that warn of new violence on the horizon.
A missionary source in Bukavu, the main town of South Kivu, told the Catholic news agency FIDES there were signs that the civil war which ravaged the country from 1998 to 2003 could flare up again.
"We are living in fear. We keep receiving mysterious leaflets saying war is imminent" the unnamed missionary said. "Bukavu is living in fear and apprehension as mysterious leaflets are circulated announcing fresh hostilities."
The unnamed source said the Congolese Tutsi rebels, or Banyamulenge are split between two factions. One faction wants to renew hostilities, while the other prefers peace.
"There are those who realize they have no chance of winning regular elections without violence and fraud and are willing to use every means to sabotage the electoral process. Then there are others anxious to continue exploiting Congo's mineral riches in total impunity denying the due profit to the local people and the legitimate government," the FIDES source said.
Tensions were already high in the area following attacks last month against the village of Kanyola south of Bukavu where at least 25 were killed and hundreds left injured. The UN reported that thousands had fled the area. The UN reported at the time that the attack by a group of 'Rasta' - Rwandan rebel group recently emerging on the scene - also affected other villages near Kanyola such as Tchindudi, Mungombe and Rudundu.
The South Kivu governor, Didas Kaningini Kyoto told Reuters AletNet that the attackers did not use guns because "they did not want to be noticed by soldiers at an army base on a hill nearby." He added: "They killed their victims with machetes and axes, smashing victims’ heads in with hammers."
The Rwandan Hutu rebels in the DR Congo are under increasing pressure from the UN and regional states to disarm and return to their home country. As a result, more splits have been reported among the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (DFLR) who include former ex-Rwandan Army Forces, former Interahamwe militias involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and young men recruited in the Rwandan refugee camps in the Congo.
One dissident group has been making tentative moves towards a mediated negotiation with Rwanda, but at the same time there are suspicions that factions in the Kinshasa transitional government are not keen that the forces should be totally disbanded.
In South Kivu, armed groups composed of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (DFLR) dissidents such as the so-called 'Rasta' group have been proliferating in the Walungu region.
They do not appear to have specific political aims to justify their murder, rape and looting. Other DFLR defectors have joined a Mai-Mai tribal Congolese militia led by 'Commander' Jackson Muhura Mboto, which is creating havoc in the Myamilima North Kivu region, at the Ugandan border. Sources: UN Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Catholic Information Service for Africa, IRIN, Reuters AlertNet
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