WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Friday it has urged renegade general Laurent Nkunda to surrender and go into exile to avoid a bloody showdown with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government troops.

Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters that diplomat Timothy Shortley, her senior advisor for conflict, had spoken to Nkunda, a Tutsi leader, to give him the message.

“And we clearly conveyed the message to him that he should surrender, go into exile and allow his forces … to be demobilized,” Frazer said when asked if Washington wanted Nkunda disarmed by President Joseph Kabila’s forces.

“Clearly as a sovereign government, President Kabila has the right to try to exercise territorial sovereignty … he has right to use his forces against what is essentially a rebelious general from his own military,” she said.

“But our concern is that the civilian population not be caught in the middle of such an offensive against Nkunda so we’ve been urging Nkunda, the government of Kabila to try to end this through peaceful means,” she said.

Nonetheless, Frazer, who spoke before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Ethiopia next week for a summit with leaders of African Great Lakes states such as the DRCongo, noted that Nkunda has resisted proposed exile.

On Tuesday, community leaders in the DRCongo joined forces to demand that the government track down Nkunda and hand him over to the courts.

The troubled eastern province of Nord-Kivu has seen heavy clashes since the end of August between some 4,000 insurgents loyal to the former general, and more than 20,000 government troops.

Nearly 400,000 civilians have been displaced by fighting in Nord-Kivu since the end of last year, according to the United Nations, in addition to some 800,000 who fled their homes following previous clashes.

Villagers have been displaced by fighting not only between the army and Nkunda, who claims to be protecting the minority Congolese Tutsi population, but also between Mai-Mai militia and Hutu rebels from Rwanda, who are hostile to Nkunda.

The United Nations has stepped up its criticism of Nkunda in recent days, leading the renegade general to accuse the world body’s mission in DRCongo of siding with government forces and warn of retaliation.