French Troops Exchange Fire With Gunmen in Northeastern Congo

BUNIA, Congo � French troops leading an international force engaged in a firefight with gunmen Saturday for the first time in their mission to stabilize this northeastern Congolese town ravaged by tribal fighting.

The special forces returned small arms and light tank fire after they were fired on by gunmen as the French patrolled near Dele (search), a village about 4 miles south of Bunia, said spokesman Col. Gerard Dubois.

The shooting lasted about 20 minutes; there were no French casualties, he said. It was not clear whether the assailants suffered any casualties.

The French patrol of about 70 troops and 20 vehicles, including one light tank fitted with a 90-mm gun, stopped when the firing started, and the soldiers took up positions in the long grass on the side of the muddy road.

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And what are the french gonna do, just sit and duck while rounds come a wizzin by? because the chance someone might get killed? Even tho that someone is a murdering monster?

On this end we are already hearing in the National news, with respect to the plight of those in the Congo. The movie "Tears of the Sun" clearly depicted a woman's breast cut off (and afterwards raped) so in the end she could not feed her children.

Africa is a place abandoned by the UN, it is a clear example of the violability of that institution (they are not worth a dam). The UN has authorized the French to be there for two months (I am certain they will comply).

What? You mean the French made it through a firefight without resorting to the white flag maneuver?

Seriously, Africa is heartbreaking. The U.N. has never done anything that amounted to anything when it comes to stopping the violence, and I doubt that it ever will or can. That continent is going to destroy itself before too many more decades.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
The U.N. has never done anything that amounted to anything when it comes to stopping the violence, and I doubt that it ever will or can. That continent is going to destroy itself before too many more decades.

Not entirely true. The UN recently sent in troops to Sierra Leone to quell years of bloody civil war. They used African and Arab soldiers rather than Western forces at first.

When this didn't work, the UN sanctioned British involvement. This involved political control as well as military control of Sierra Leone directed by powers outside.

The action worked and the civil war was ended in the space of a couple of months. The UK military forces were not very numerous either. Perhaps at most a couple of hundred soldiers.

Africans don't know how to fight Western forces.
They're outgunned and outmanouvered by our technology.
Militarily, we could stop their troubles tomorrow. Politically, we're stuffed. We can't do very much as we already have enough trouble with the rest of the world. Then to cap that, it's going to cost heaps of money to pick the continent up - money that we don't have at the moment.
We need to deal with other issues before we can turn to sorting out Africa.

It's a sad fact, but our hands are tied.

The Congo situation is bad. Uh, don't look for America or Britain to help out though. Possibly both nations would, but not after France's veto bout in the U.N.

french soilders actually fighting? with bullets? now ive seen every thing

if the US goes in with the UN i fear we may have another Black Hawk Down situation.

The un should be disolved. everytime the UN goes into somewhere our boys are the bulk of the force. EVERY #ING TIME! if the UN wants something to get done it should not make us the bulk of the force, there are so many countries in the UN i dont understand why our guys have to do most of the work and dying!

Omg...you mean the french didn't surrender?

Well thats a first, the French helping to liberate a country... the french didnt help us liberate france!!!!

the french will get their asses kicked by the congo guys. itll be another vietnam for them.

I tend to agree. Africa as a whole is completely unstable, most nation-states are in a perpetual cival war. It is a bad idea to intervene. Hey, more power to the cheese eating surrender monkeys if they want to intervene, though.

we can blame the eurpoeans for this african mess. when they were starting to colonize africa they #ed up the whole tribal situation by moving tribes onto other tribes' land. thats why there is this mess is africa.

Many parts of Africa are former Frog territories. The French have actually seen quite a bit of action in several African nations.

Don't be surprised if you see more action in Africa in a quest for oil.

KrazyIvan said:

"we can blame the eurpoeans for this african mess. when they were starting to colonize africa they f*ckt up the whole tribal situation by moving tribes onto other tribes' land. thats why there is this mess is africa."

I don't agree with you on the Israel/Palestine issue; but you're pretty much right on here.

Why is that whites and Jews seem to cause trouble every where they go?


ONE

Originally posted by Tamahu
KrazyIvan said:

"we can blame the eurpoeans for this african mess. when they were starting to colonize africa they f*ckt up the whole tribal situation by moving tribes onto other tribes' land. thats why there is this mess is africa."

I don't agree with you on the Israel/Palestine issue; but you're pretty much right on here.

Why is that whites and Jews seem to cause trouble every where they go?


ONE


So astute. Nah, the Africans aren't at all to blame for their constant tribal wars. The South Americans aren't at all to blame for their uprisings. The Asians aren't to blame for their atrocities. Pol Pot was a Jew? Mao? Come on, humans are brutal. Don't blame it on whites and Jews.

French troops leading an international force engaged in a firefight with gunmen Saturday for the first time

without laughing!

Sorry, just couldn't resist it...

French wine anyone?!?

I see this as a posturing move by the French to 'show' the US that it can indeed fight. *cough*

I also see this resulting as it has always resulted with French involvement.....the preverbial 'hands in the air' and the US picking up its slack!

regards
seekerof

Originally posted by dragonrider

The French patrol of about 70 troops and 20 vehicles, including one light tank fitted with a 90-mm gun, stopped when the firing started, and the soldiers took up positions in the long grass on the side of the muddy road.

www.foxnews.com...

They didnt note that this was the entire french army LOL and that they were on a cliff with no place to run. Also this sounds funny they shot into the long grasson the side of the road in the congo. It was probably a boar or and elk or somtin. They didnt catch the assailents or hurt them. I bet this was on every french newspaper. Had a French soldier on top of the tank with the 90 mm gun shootin at a tiger or somtin

[Edited on 17-6-2003 by Quicksilver]