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KIGALI, June 25 (AFP) - Rwandan troops are trying to drive rebels in the northeastern Byumba region back across the Ugandan border, but the guerrillas have seized a tea plantation, Defence Minister James Gasana said.
Ugandan civilians accompanying the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) were looting in and around the plantation at Mulindi, 20 kilometres (some 12 miles) from Byumba town, Gasana also stated Wednesday.
The rebels were operating in the Cyumba, Kivuye, Kiyombe and Mukarange districts of Byumba, he said.
The FPR was also shelling government troops at Ruhengeri in the northwest, the minister said.
The Belgian embassy in Kigali has meanwhile provided 25 million Rwandan francs (176,000 dollars) in further emergency aid to Rwandans displaced by the fighting, officials said. Total Belgian aid under this heading amounts to 1.3 million dollars.
Since fighting broke out in the Byumba region of the small, densely populated highland nation of Rwanda on June 5, some 220,000 people have fled their homes, according to officials.
The FPR, consisting mostly of people from the Tutsi minority who had traditionally ruled over Rwanda's Hutus, first launched its insurrection from Uganda in October 1990.
Though fighting continues, peace talks have recently been under way in Paris, Brussels and most recently Dakar, where the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) holds it annual summit next week.
mgu-jpc/nb/ma AFP AFP SEQN-0296
