GOMA – The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) army claims desertions have weakened rebel forces ahead of a planned offensive against them, but analysts doubt the prospect of a knock-out blow and rebel General Laurent Nkunda remains defiant.

On Thursday, just a day after President Joseph Kabila’s visit to Goma and declaration of forceful action against Nkunda’s fighters for failure to meet the deadline of integration to government troops, 91 Nkunda’s National Congress for People’s Defense (CNDP) soldiers voluntarily surrendered to the DRC government ,Lieutenant colonel Raure Pembe who is in charge of the military integration process in North Kivu province  said that the decision by some of  Nkunda’s troop’s to end the conflict by  accepting the integration process was a sign for future peace in the North Kivu province.

‘They surrendered to the government and we are sending them to camps in which they will be integrated to government troops.” 

Nkunda says he is defending DRC’s Tutsi ethnic community against attacks by Rwandan Hutu rebels, FDLR, he says are supported by Kabila’s army.

But a defiant Nkunda, who has led a rebellion since 2004 in defence of Congolese Tutsis, accused the army of exaggerating the desertions and said he would resist a government offensive.

"I’m going to seriously defend myself,” he told a Reuters TV reporter by telephone from North Kivu late on Thursday.

Nkunda also warned the 17 000-strong UN peacekeeping force in DRC (Monuc) not to join the Congolese army in attacking him, saying this would be "catastrophic”.

Monuc, which has sent helicopter gunships against Nkunda’s men in the past, has been supporting the army in North Kivu with air transport, reconnaissance and medical services.

"[The army] has been pouring in reinforcements ... Air reconnaissance and mobility are force multipliers. This really is an asset,” Monuc spokesperson Kemal Saiki said.

Some analysts doubt whether Kabila’s army, which has struggled to subdue the violent east and has serious discipline problems in its own ranks, can inflict an all-out defeat on Nkunda’s men among North Kivu’s hills, forests and pastures.

"The Nkunda side has high morale, are highly motivated, and know the territory very well.

They seem ready to sustain any offensive,” David Mugnier, Central Africa programme director for the International Crisis Group think tank, told Reuters.

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