{{Ambassador to UN says Rwanda will strike DR Congo if cross-border firing continues, after peace talks break down.}}
DR Congo troops have fired three shells over the border into neighbouring Rwanda, injuring at least one person, during resurgent clashes with M23 rebel fighters, Rwandan officials have claimed.
Rwanda’s UN ambassador Eugene Richard Gasana told the AFP news agency on Friday that his country would not hesitate to retaliate if the firing continued.
“If they are not ready to stop this, we will immediately act and it will hurt,” he said, adding: “We will do it with laser precision, we know where it is coming from.”
Rwanda is a current temporary member of the Security Council and Gasana said he had given his government’s tough message to the other 14 members.
The council has asked for an investigation into the origin of Friday’s shelling, diplomats said.
Fighting between the DR Congo army and M23 rebels resumed on Friday, both sides and the United Nations said just days after the latest effort at peace talks collapsed.
The violence continued throughout Friday, according to a statement from the UN Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which went into action alongside Kinshasa’s troops.
MONUSCO said it was “extremely concerned” about the resumption of hostilities, calling on the M23 rebels to return to the negotiating table.
“I am serious in our efforts to protect civilians and neutralise all armed groups to bring back peace and stability”, said MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler.
Al Jazeera’s Peter Greste, reporting from Nairobi, said while the fighting had calmed on Saturday morning, the situation remained tense in the region with thousands of people uprooted from their homes due to the renewed clashes.
Rwanda’s ministry of refugee affairs said between 2,500 and 3,000 people had fled into the country via two border posts.
Aljazeera
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