Warlord’s fighters attack government forces

Fighters loyal to a dissident warlord attacked government forces in an eastern town, forcing more than 10,000 people to flee amid automatic weapons fire, military and U.N. officials said.

Forces loyal to warlord Laurent Nkunda attacked army positions Saturday in Sake, a small town about 15 miles west of the eastern provincial capital of Goma, army commander Col. Delphin Kahindi told The Associated Press from Sake.

Kahindi said 15 people, including eight civilians, were wounded in five hours of clashes in which he said army troops repulsed Nkunda’s fighters. The crackle of machine-gun fire could be heard as Kahindi spoke.

Most of Sake’s inhabitants – estimated at about 12,000 people – fled toward Goma and the nearby town of Minova, U.N. spokeswoman Jacqueline Chenard said.

Congo’s government, based in the faraway capital, Kinshasa, has struggled to gain control over the lawless eastern regions of the country, which have remained violent despite the end of a 1998-2002 war and the presence of more than 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers.