Government forces say they beat back a force of at least 300 Hutu rebels trying to enter the country from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo Wednesday. The Rwandan General Staff says the fighting centered on the town of Mutura in northwestern Gisenyi province.
Senior officers report no casualties on the government side.
The armed forces say they have now killed at least 250 rebels in the past two weeks. Analysts have recently warned of rebel troop concentrations at the Congolese border, saying these could lead to renewed violence and terror. Extremist Hutus held power in Rwanda until 1994. They and their allies, the Interahamwe militia, carried out the genocide of as many as 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus before losing power in July of that year. Since the fall of the Hutu regime, the Tutsi government has sent troops into Congo to pursue the rebels and the Interahamwe.