OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 12.15PM.
THE Democratic Republic of Congo government says it has launched counterattacks against Tutsi rebels in the east and south-west of the country. It has vowed to drive “the Rwandans” all the way back to Kigali.
Information Minister Didier Mumengi said army loyalists were advancing on rebel positions in the east, where Congolese Tutsi (Banyamulenge) soldiers launched their rebellion ten days ago.
“The Rwandans have problems in the east,” Mumengi said. “They are starting to retreat.” He said the strategic Congo River ports of Boma and Matadi, about 350km south-west of Kinshasa, were in the hands of government troops. It is the first time that the DRC government has acknowledged that rebels had reached Boma, and there was no independent confirmation of Mumengi’s claims of the government advances.
Officials and independent sources say the rebels hold the western garrison town of Kitona, the naval base of Banana and the oil town of Muanda in the west. Boma and Matadi are major towns in the river corridor supplying Kinshasa from the sea.
DRC president Laurent Kabila said on Monday: “There is no rebellion. There is Rwandan aggression.” He also accused Uganda of sending troops into the east of the country to back the Tutsis.
Both Rwanda and Uganda have denied the claims, saying that the conflict in DRC is an internal matter.
Meanwhile it has been reported by Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe deliberately kept South Africa out of the summit held at the weekend to mediate the DRC conflict.
The report said Mugabe had set up a four-nation committee to broker a settlement. The Southern African Development Community, led by South African president Nelson Mandela, could not be involved because Kabila had accused South Africa of working with Rwanda and Uganda, the paper said.
However, during a separate meeting with a South African delegation in DRC on Friday, it is reported that Kabila asked South Africa for military support.