Hundreds protest presence of S. Sudan rebels in DRC

By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, DRC

Hundreds of people in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, have demonstrated Saturday against the presence of South Sudanese rebels in the region.

Led by North Kivu province legislators' spokesman John Paul Lumbu, locals protested near the office of the provincial governor in Goma to demand that the South rebels be relocated to another African country.

"In April 1994 [during the Rwandan genocide], the population of North Kivu welcomed Rwandan refugees. Unfortunately, these refugees have become killers of the Congolese. That is the reason why do not want South Sudan rebels in our territory,” Lumbu was quoted as saying by a local journalist who spoke to Anadolu Agency.

Over 500 South Sudanese combatants, most of them injured, were taken to Nyiragongo in North Kivu by the DRC government in the North Kivu province for treatment.

The combatants loyal to the former vice president of South Sudan, Riek Machar, were among the 20,000 South Sudanese who fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following turmoil in their country this summer.

The protestors also handed a petition to the central government through the provincial governor, demanding the relocation of the rebels.

The governor of North Kivu, Julien Paluku Kahongya, told Anadolu Agency that he had promised to forward the petition to the prime minister.