European Union considers sending troops to enforce cease-fire in Congo

November 2, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

TONGO, Congo (AP) — The European Union could send troops to Congo if a fragile cease-fire between rebel fighters and the army fails, the U.K. minister for African affairs said Saturday as rebels forced tens of thousands of people from makeshift refugee camps in the insurgent-held zone.

The French and British foreign ministers arrived in Congo for talks with Congolese and Rwandan officials as pressure mounted for a regional summit to secure an end to the country’s worst violence in years.

Outside the regional capital, Goma, rebels were pushing people to leave camps and return home, witnesses and a U.N. official said. They did not say why this was happening and the rebels issued no immediate comment.

“They beat us with sticks and told us that we must get out,” said Daria Nyarangaruye, an elderly woman who wore a rosary around her neck.

Nyarangaruye said she had been forced to leave a camp in Tongo that had housed thousands of people a day earlier. She spoke near her home by a roadside, six miles away and said she feared more fighting and did not feel safe.

Further south in Rutshuru, a rebel commander who identified himself as Maj. Muhire said people were returning home because they were free to. But a U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for the safety of U.N. staff, said rebels have closed camps housing thousands of people.

An upsurge in fighting between rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda and the army since August has displaced more than 220,000 people in a region already home to about 800,000 more displaced.