BBC. BBC.

You're with the BBC.

Now in the BBC World Service it's time for assignment.

The BBC has found evidence that a senior Congolese army general has used his troops

to take over a lucrative mine in eastern Congo.

Toma Fessi reports from the town of Walekali in the North Kivu forest near the Wendon border.

From a hill which overlooks the town, I can feel how remote it is.

We're nearly 2,000 kilometres away from the Congolese capital Kinchasa here.

The forest is just all around. Walekali is completely surrounded by this very dense vegetation.

Now these forests host some of the region's biggest mines.

Cassiterites, Coltan or gold.

It's all here, deep in the jungle.

But sadly the reality of this picture is much less peaceful than that.

This is an area where people have gone through several wars.

I guess it is no secret that these conflicts are being fueled by the mineral trade.

So for this week's edition of assignment, I've come to investigate this illegal trading of what some have called blood gold.

And whether a senior army general is personally benefiting from the mining and illegal trade of gold.

The lure of the profit from these mines has turned this area close to the border with Rwanda and Uganda into a battlefield.

Rebels of kidnapped, raped and massacred civilians in surrounding villages.

The government has said this must stop and it's sent in the military.

But order of the president, who is also the supreme command of our armed forces, is being strictly implemented by the Congolese Army.

That is certain.

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