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KIGALI, July 20 (AFP) - Rebels in Rwanda violated a week-long truce on Monday by launching a series of almost simultaneous attacks in the Byumba region, Defence Minister James Gasana said here.
He said about 100 membrs of the Patriotic Front group had attacked just before dawn in the northeast at Miyove, wounding a government soldier, and 10 minutes later another 100 rebels attacked Rugarama at dawn.
Under a peace pact signed a week ago at talks in Arusha, Tanzania, a truce was formally to have taken effect from midnight Sunday, with a full ceasefire due to come into force at midnight on July 31 to end almost two years of civil war which has uprooted nearly a quarter of a million people.
Gasana declined to say if fighting was continuing, but said he was optimistic a ceasefire would hold because neutral observers from Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe were to monitor it.
mgu/jaw/msa AFP AFP SEQN-0212
