KISANGANI, DR Congo (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo, which is emerging from five years of bloody warfare, "will allow no further aggression," warned President Joseph Kabila on his first visit to the restive east of this vast central African country.
"Even if we say there is peace today, there are still countries that think they can return to the Congo," Kabila told a crowd of a thousand people shortly after arriving to a rousing welcome on his first stop of the historic visit.
He named no states, but neighboring Rwanda and Uganda supported DRC rebels in the east and effectively occupied the area during much of the 1998-2003 war, which formally ended in April with a fragile peace pact.
"I will accept no further aggression" in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said the president in this town that was the arena for some of the war's most violent battles between DRC and Rwandan troops.
The DRC, a country with huge mineral resources, saw more than a half dozen other African countries drawn into its war, which was dubbed Africa's world war.
It claimed some 2.5 million lives and many of the battlefields were in the east, which remains volatile and mired in unrest, much of it interethnic.
Kabila, who came to power in January 2001 following his father, Laurent Kabila's, assassination, was welcomed by hundreds of cheering people gathered outside the military airport in DRC's third largest city and capital of Orientale province when he arrived shortly after noon.
His visit comes eight months before elections -- the first since those held on independence from Belgium more than 40 years ago -- are due to be held.
For security reasons the duration of Kabila's stay in Kisangani has not been specified but corroborating sources said he will probably stay in the city for three days.
Kabila was also due to visit a cemetery for victims of the wars and lay the foundation stones for several building projects, officials said.
After Kisangani, he is expected to travel on to Kindu, capital of Maniema province which lies south of Kisangani on the Congo River.