Around 50 soldiers loyal to Congolese former rebel chief Jean-Pierre Bemba were withdrawn from Kinshasa on Thursday after President Joseph Kabila gave an ultimatum for Bemba's forces to be removed from the city.
Foreign diplomats intensified efforts to head off another armed confrontation between soldiers and supporters of the two political rivals, who faced off in a historic presidential run-off vote in Democratic Republic of Congo on October 29.
Bemba, a vice-president in a transition government, refuses to accept a provisional result showing Kabila has won the vote in Congo's first free elections in more than 40 years.
Bemba's supporters, including bodyguards, rioted amid heavy gunfire on Tuesday at the Supreme Court, which was set ablaze. The court must confirm the provisional result, after first ruling on Bemba's complaint that there was cheating.
Kabila late on Wednesday gave the UN peace force, MONUC, 48 hours to remove Bemba's soldiers - estimated at 600 - from the riverside city. If not, he said the army would do it. "The first 49 soldiers have been moved out of town to Maluku," a military base for Bemba's forces outside of Kinshasa, a UN official, who asked not to be named, said on Thursday.
A Congolese security source confirmed the transfer, which the sources said was carried out by the Congolese army. "They talked about 48 hours to start the programme, and the programme has begun in that period. We had a plan drawn up between the Congolese army and MONUC ... and it is that plan which was set to start soon. That is what is starting now," UN mission chief William Swing told reporters. Swing declined to say how many Bemba troops would leave, saying it was a matter for the army, which was running the plan.
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