OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Tuesday 2.30PM
DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila returned to Kinshasa on Tuesday from an undisclosed location, a presidential aide said.
Kabila’s return to Kinshasa after a 10-day absence coincides with an offensive by government troops backed by Angolan soldiers against rebels in the country’s south-west.
After Kabila failed at the weekend to attend a summit in Pretoria on the three-week-old rebellion against his government, presidential communications adviser Dominique Sakombi on Monday said the president was “tired because he is overseeing the war as commander-in-chief of the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC).”
Meanwhile, Kabila’s government on Tuesday said the strategic port of Matadi is “virtually under the control” of pro-government troops, though rebels are holding out in small groups. Matadi is a vital strategic site on the south-western battlefront in the vast DRC, where rebels are also active in the north-east and claimed at the weekend to have seized Kisangani, the main city in that region some 1200 km from Kinshasa.
Meanwhile, the Namibian government has denied military involvement in DRC. “There are no Namibian troops heading for the DRC from the north or any other part of Namibia,” said defence ministry spokesman Vincent Mwange, adding: “We are supporting Kabila. We are giving them logistical support, giving food and medicine.” Local newspaper reports say a large armoured column crossed the border into Angola at the weekend.