Citation
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF | |
STATE
- REVIEW AUTHORITY: HARRY R. MELONE
_ DATE/CASE ID: 29 JAN 2002 199500391 *
UNCLASSIFIED
RELEASED A
Analyst: Date: 10/04/90 Time: 22:39:22
Distributed to:
SWO.ED.S.SS.D.P.SSO.AF.C.SP.PM.CMS.MR.
FBIS _1650CT04
UNCLAS_8A
Rwanda: Government Troops Said Running Out of Ammunition
AB0410212790 Paris AFP in English 2102 GMT 4 Oct 90
[Excerpts] Brussels, Oct 4 (AFP) -- Belgian paratroopers were
preparing Thursday to leave for the east central African state of
Rwanda, where government troops have since Sunday been fighting a
rebel incursion, a private Belgian television channel reported.
[passage omitted]
Diplomatic sources in the east African region have reported that
Rwanda’s tiny army faces the rebels less than 70 kilometres (44
miles) from Kigali. The rebel force, led by former Ugandan Deputy
Army Chief Fred Rwigyema, had formed a front between Gatsibo and
Gabiro, northeast of the capital.
Government troops were beginning to run out of ammunition, the
sources said, but there were no details of casualties.
Commander Rwigyema on Wednesday told a Ugandan official close to
the border that his men had killed 30 government soldiers in the
Kagitumba valley on Monday and captured dozens of prisoners,
including three officers, with military equipment, according to an
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE reporter on the Ugandan side of the border.
Several diplomats said the rebel leader, a member of the minority
Tutsi people who has reportedly set up his base at Kagitumba in the
Matara region, was out to oust the majority Hutu government in
Kigali. He was reported to have at least 1,500 men, but told the
Ugandan official he had "more than 7,000" at his disposal.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman here confirmed Wednesday that the
rebels were advancing, but said. "you mustn’t dramatize things. It’s
easy to make progress because there’s nothing but savannah in the
north."
4 Oct 22182 cw
UNCLASSIFIED
