Congo 'allies' battle for rebel city

Heavy fighting between Rwandan and Ugandan forces has killed at least 50 civilians in a rebel-held city in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The United Nations mission in the city of Kisangani said at least 16 children had been killed when their school was hit by a shell.

Another 100 were injured, and the city's cathedral was left in flames after it was also hit.

The fighting continued despite a ceasefire on Tuesday between the two former allies - who back rival groups of rebels opposed to the government of President Laurent Kabila.

A Reuters reporter said the cathedral's wooden roof was in flames, while three shells landed inside the church compound where the UN military observer mission has its headquarters.

Local people clambered onto the wooden roof of the church to extinguish the flames after the shell exploded, while others ran into the church to bring out bibles, pews, flowers, clothes and an electronic keyboard.

In the streets, civilians ran with their heads down as bullets whipped through the trees.

They are destroying everything. What did we do to deserve this?

Kisangani resident

Rwandan officers, who control the part of town around the cathedral, said they were bringing in reinforcements from the area around Kisangani.

They accused Ugandans of starting Wednesday's fighting and said the Ugandans already had five battalions on the north-western outskirts of town.

Most of the fighting was centred on the Tshopo river bridge on the outskirts of the city.

"Around Tshopo it's catastrophic. Houses have been completely flattened," said maths teacher Willy Bondombe.

"People have just been buried near their houses because [the survivors] can't go out," he told Reuters news agency.

The UN Security Council has called for an immediate halt to the hostilities, saying they could threaten plans to deploy a 5,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Congo.

Antagonism

The Ugandan and Rwandan presidents agreed last month to end the fighting and withdraw their troops from Kisangani

But since Monday, fierce artillery exchanges have been taking place in the city centre and in surrounding suburbs.

The withdrawal agreement has also been undermined by a continuing war of words.

Ugandan and Rwandan commanders accused each other of trying to deceive the UN, of publicly withdrawing their troops or secretly pushing for complete control of Kisangani.

Hopes of a UN deployment hang on the ceasefire holding

The BBC correspondent in Kigali, Chris Simpson, says the two commanders who control different parts of the diamond-rich city appear to have a deep-seated mistrust of one another.

Despite months of summit meetings and top-level consultations, a real antagonism has developed between Uganda and Rwanda.

Rwandan officials now speak of the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, with open contempt, arguing that he has given extremists in the Ugandan military free reign, and also sabotaged the rebellion in Congo by encouraging the fragmentation of the main rebel movements.

Uganda is equally critical of Rwanda, hinting that its much smaller neighbour has regional ambitions which are vain and inappropriate.

There are also accusations that Rwanda has committed a series of errors in DR Congo.

Various neighbouring countries, particularly Tanzania, have tried to rebuild relations between Uganda and Rwanda but so far in vain.