FORTY-FOUR people have been killed in new fighting between the Congolese army and M23 rebels, ending a two-month ceasefire.
Both sides have blamed the other for starting the fighting.
"The M23 has attacked us around 5am this morning," Colonel Olivier Hamuli said on Thursday, adding that the fighting against 700 rebels continued until about 3pm.
Forty-four M23 fighters were killed in the battle, the governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, told The Associated Press by phone.
But the M23 rebels said the Congolese army initiated the hostilities. On Saturday, the political branch spokesman, Bertrand Bisimwa, accused the army of attacking the rebels in Kitagoma, near the Ugandan border.
However, local sources say the attack in Kitagoma was carried out by an armed group allied with the M23 and the rebels are only looking for an excuse to start fighting again.
The spokesman for the United Nations mission in Congo (MONUSCO), Manodje Munubai, also confirmed Thursday's clash.
Since August, members of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region have been holding talks in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to try to find a solution to the conflict. There had been a de facto ceasefire during the mediation, but tensions mounted on the ground over the past two weeks as the talks seemed to be reaching a dead end.
Troop movements increased on both sides of the frontline, triggering skirmishes between the rebels and the army.
Direct fighting finally broke out Thursday in Rugari, the town between the M23 and the Congolese army positions, only 30 kilometres from Goma, the provincial capital, and around 15km from Kanyaruchinya, a camp where more than 60,000 people have sought refuge from the conflict since June.
More than 250 families fled the fighting on Thursday and arrived at the Kanyaruchinya camp, said a witness contacted by AP in Goma.
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