Congolese army deserters led by ex-general Bosco Ntaganda were in a shootout with soldiers in the eastern DR Congo town of Kimbumba overnight, an army captain said Tuesday."We started fighting around midnight (2200 GMT Monday)," he told AFP.
"General Bosco Ntaganda was in the ranks" of the mutineers, who are former members of rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
"After a heavy shootout lasting four hours in Kibumba, we were backed by heavy weapons fire," said the captain, himself a former member of the CNDP who integrated into the army under a 2009 peace deal with Kinshasa.
The captain did not give a casualty toll. Hundreds of former CNDP members mutinied last month, complaining of inhumane treatment in the regular army.
Fierce festivities have broken out between deserters and loyalists, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
"The mutineers dispersed ... into the woods behind Kibumba, which they crossed last night," the captain said, adding that they were "numerous" and were headed to Virunga, a nature reserve on the border with Rwanda famous for its mountain gorillas.