Burundi warns DR Congo conflict risks regional war

GOMA, DR Congo:The conflict in eastern DR Congo risks escalating into a broader regional war, Burundi´s president said Saturday, as Africa´s top health agency warned the fighting could spark new outbreaks of serious diseases.

The Rwanda-backed armed group M23 has vowed to march on the capital Kinshasa after capturing eastern DR Congo´s biggest city of Goma earlier this week.

The lightning offensive is the latest to scar the mineral-rich region, which has seen relentless conflict involving dozens of armed groups kill an estimated six million people over three decades.

The fall of Goma has rattled the continent, prompting international condemnation, fears of a humanitarian crisis and warnings that the conflict could spiral into a wider conflagration affecting more countries.

“If it continues like this, war risks becoming widespread in the region,” Burundi´s President Evariste Ndayishimiye said.

“It is not only Burundi, it is Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya -- it is the whole region, it is a threat,” he said in an official video posted to YouTube on Saturday.

Illustrating the complicated nature of the conflict, Burundi itself has at least 10,000 soldiers in the east of DR Congo, a Burundian military source told AFP on Saturday.

Many of the Burundian troops, who are there under a previous military agreement with Kinshasa, have been redeployed to South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu.

Uganda´s army will meanwhile adopt a “forward defensive posture” in eastern DRC, it said on Friday.

A UN expert report in July said Rwanda had around 4,000 troops in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo, accusing Kigali of having “de facto” control over the M23.

Rwanda denies any military involvement, maintaining its goal in eastern DRC is to eradicate a Hutu-led armed group formed in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

DR Congo accuses Rwanda of seeking to profit from the region´s rare minerals, which are used in technology such as smartphones across the world -- a claim Rwanda also denies.

Since M23 and Rwandan troops entered South Kivu province´s capital Goma on Sunday, at least 700 people have been killed and another 2,800 wounded in intense clashes, according to the United Nations.

The M23 have outmatched the ill-equipped and poorly paid Congolese forces, which have resorted to hastily recruiting volunteers to fight back.