June 5, 2004

BY RODRIQUE NGOWI

BUKAVU, Congo -- U.N. troops took control of a strategic eastern Congolese city Friday as renegade soldiers withdrew and President Joseph Kabila attempted to calm the nation after the largest and most violent protests since he took office.

Renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda said most of his forces had completed their pullout and U.N. troops were now controlling Bukavu, a trading center on the border with Rwanda. He said only a few officers and their bodyguards remained, and they would leave today.

''This operation has ended,'' Nkunda said.

U.N. armored trucks and helicopters patrolled Bukavu on Friday afternoon.

U.N. workers returned late Friday, looking to set up a camp to provide aid to residents. The world body reported a major disruption to humanitarian efforts when angry Congolese looted U.N. World Food Program offices across Congo on Thursday to protest the fall of Bukavu.

In Kinshasa, the capital 930 miles to the southwest, Kabila spoke on state TV Thursday and Friday to calm the nation after two days of nationwide protests, the largest since 1997.

''We ask for calm from all the Congolese people and ask for their confidence in the army and police,'' Kabila said Friday.

Thursday's riots against the government and the United Nations revealed the weakness of Kabila's government, even on its home turf. Protesters blamed Congo's army for the loss of Bukavu and Congo's 10,800-strong U.N. force for standing by as it was seized.

Wednesday's capture of Bukavu by the former rebel commanders posed the most serious challenge yet to the transitional government formed to end the devastating civil war in Africa's third-largest nation. More than 3.5 million died during the civil war, mostly from disease and famine.

AP

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