WEDNESDAY, 6.30PM
THE French aid group Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF; Doctors Without Borders) has reported continued heavy fighting in the town of Kenge, 200 kilometres east of Kinshasa. Some 200 civilians and 100 goverment soldiers have been killed, but rebels have not yet taken the town.
The MSF sources have refuted claims by rebel spokesman Mwenze Kongolo that the town has been “completely taken” after heavy fighting.
WEDNESDAY, 14.30PM
The political secretary of the South African embassy in Kinshasa, Adrian du Pisani, on Wednesday described the situation in the Zairean capital as quiet but tense. He said the price of food had rocketed in the capital following the fall of Kinshasa’s major food source, Bandundu province. A bag of cassava, the nation’s food staple, has gone up 250% in a week. Du Pisani said prices were beyond the means of most of the capital’s inhabitants, particularly since civil servants had not been paid for some time.
Pamphlets issued in the rebels’ name appeared on Kinshasa’s streets on Tuesday. They reassured the population that the Alliance’s “valiant combatants” have already infiltrated the capital.
The leaflets appealed to the population to remain calm and to demonstrate support for the rebels by wearing white headbands. And they called on people to support those elements of the army which back the rebels, and to “throw into oblivion” those who remain loyal to Mobutu.
But while there is undoubted backing for the rebels in Kinshasa, there were no signs that people felt secure enough to demonstrate it openly by wearing symbols of support. Local newspapers, which specialise in wild conspiracies, claimed that Mobutu is really a prisoner on a South African ship and that his final act will be to bombard Kinshasa with radiation from an experimental nuclear reactor at the university.
WEDNESDAY, 12.30PM
PRESIDENT Mobutu Sese Seko left Zaire for Libreville on his private Boeing 737 on Wednesday, ostensibly for an unplanned regional summit after rebel leader Laurent Kabila gave him three days to depart or be “chased from power”. The three leaders Mobutu is meeting have very little influence and the ailing autocrat’s opponents predict he is fleeing for good.