Congo Rebels Capture Mineral Transit Town

Fighters loyal to renegade Congolese Gen. Bosco Ntaganda have captured an important mineral transit town on Congo's eastern border, Ugandan and Congolese military officials said, potentially exacerbating the disruption of mineral exports from Africa's largest tin producer.

In a two-day offensive to take the town of Bunagana, rebel fighters overran Congo's United Nations-backed army positions using heavy artillery and rockets, the officials said. Hundreds of Congolese soldiers crossed the town's border with Uganda and have been detained by Ugandan forces.

A Congolese military official denied that their positions were overrun and said that the decision by some soldiers to retreat had been tactical.

The official, speaking by telephone from Goma, North Kivu's provincial capital, 45 miles from the fighting, said Congolese government forces still retained control of some surrounding villages and parts of Bunagana town.

"Fighting is still going on as we speak," the official said.

The conflict broke out in April after Mr. Ntaganda defected with hundreds of troops amid mounting pressure to have him arrested for war-crimes charges. Mineral exports have been hampered since May.

Bunagana is the main transit route for minerals from North Kivu through Uganda. Truckloads of valuable metals are then sent by road to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, where the bulk of Congo's minerals such as tin, coltan, gold and tungsten are exported to overseas markets.

The town, which straddles the Congo-Uganda border, is also a supply route for vital imports such as fuel and mining machinery for landlocked eastern Congo. Mineral dealers based in North Kivu, Congo, and Kampala, Uganda, said that at least 500 metric tons (551 short tons) of mineral ores are exported through the Bunagana border town every day. Because the country lacks proper mineral-processing facilities, it is hard to break down how much of each type of mineral ore is exported, local traders said.

The rebels, who call themselves the March 23 Movement, or M23, are loyal to Mr. Ntaganda, a former militia leader who initially joined the Congolese national army as part of a mediation effort but then broke away in April to resume his fight against the central government after being accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Like Mr. Ntaganda, the rebels are former members of a Tutsi-led militia, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, which was integrated into the national army as part of a 2009 peace accord.

Hundreds of Bunagana residents have fled across the border into Uganda in recent days, potentially overwhelming relief officials.

More than 40,000 refugees have crossed into Uganda since April to escape the fighting, according to the Uganda Red Cross Society.

The U.N. Security Council has called for a full investigation of reports of Rwandan support for the M23 rebels.

Until 2010, Congo accounted for at least 5% to 7% of global tin supplies, according to industry body the International Tin Research Institute.