The UN Security Council will hold emergency talks on a new surge in fighting in eastern DR Congo in which a UN peacekeeper was killed, diplomats said as government troops cleared rebels from strategic positions in the country's restive east.
The FARDC regular army took back control of both the city of Rutshuru and the rebel-held town of Kiwanja, home to a base used by the UN mission MONUSCO that had been repeatedly looted by rebels, said the governor of North-Kivu province, Julien Paluku.
MONUSCO said a Tanzanian officer was killed in Kiwanja, where United Nations forces joined the army to drive out rebels on the third day of clashes since a fresh flare-up in violence on Friday. The circumstances of his death were unclear, said the UN force.
The soldier was the third Tanzanian with the UN brigade to have been killed in recent months.
"The soldier died while protecting the people of Kiwanja," said MONUSCO head Martin Kobler in a statement.
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The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement the UN chief "condemns in the strongest terms the killing of a Tanzanian peacekeeper who came under fire from the M23 movement in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"The Secretary-General offers his sincere condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, and to the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania."
The statement added that the United Nations "remains committed to taking all necessary actions ... to protect civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo".
The UN chief's top envoys to the conflict, Kobler and Mary Robinson, have voiced grave concern over the fresh fighting, calling for "maximum restraint". The United States and European Union have also sounded the alarm.
