DAKAR, Senegal (AP) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Thursday renewed the invasion threat that ignited Central Africa’s deadliest conflict, the 1998-2002 Congo war, saying the continuing presence of Rwandan Hutu rebels in neighboring Congo means “the war is already on.”

“At the appropriate moment, we certainly will take measures,” Kagame told The Associated Press, calling a 5-month-old U.N.-led campaign to disarm the Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo a failure.

Asked about any deadline for Rwandan action, he said, “It should have been yesterday.”

But a Congo spokesman said Rwanda’s latest complaints are a pretext to resume exploiting Congo’s natural resources, as it did during the civil war.

A U.N. Security Council mission visiting the region urged Rwanda to show restraint.

While the Rwandan leader has always talked tough about the lingering presence in Congo of militias opposed to his government, a U.N. announcement Wednesday added immediacy to the warning. A senior Rwandan official had advised U.N. Congo special adviser William Swing that Rwanda would attack bases of Rwandan Hutu rebels within Congo “very soon,” U.N. mission spokeswoman Patricia Tome said.

History added weight – Rwanda has invaded Congo twice before in pursuit of the rebels. The second time, in 1998, touched off a five-year war that drew the armies of four other nations into Congo and killed an estimated 3.2 million people in eastern Congo alone, territory under Rwanda’s wartime control.