FRIDAY, 5.00PM
CONGOLESE government troops intensified their shelling of the central and northern parts of the capital Brazzaville on Friday in a continued attack on the militia of former dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Brazzaville residents fleeing across the Congo river to Kinshasa, capital of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, said shells struck the home of Sassou Nguesso, as well as Yoro port in the same Mpila district where hundreds of people were waiting for pirogues (large canoes) to carry them to safety.
Several people were killed or injured in Mpila, while shells also hit the central district of Poto-Poto, causing general panic and a flight to get across the waterway, witnesses said.
“Sassou Nguesso’s Cobra militiamen are still present in the central and northern districts and are holding their ground,” one fugitive said. Supporters of the country’s former strongman returned shell-fire from an armoured base in Mpila. Another fleeing resident claimed that the rebels are getting set for a major counter-offensive, on Sassou Nguesso’s orders, from the middle of next week, which would change the military balance.
On Friday, government radio said the rebel-held districts had fallen to Lissouba’s soldiers, but Sassou Nguesso, who took power in 1979 and was ousted in free polls in 1992, has dismissed this claim as a lie. The government on Thursday denied reports of the fall of Ouesso, the largest northern city, to partisans of Sassou Nguesso, who in turn said he still hold it.
The current fighting broke out in June when presidential forces sought to disarm Sassou Nguesso’s militiamen for posing a threat to presidential elections due to have been held on July 27.