OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kisangani | Sunday 9.00pm.
THE rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have announced that they have entered the strategic town of Kindu, the forward headquarters for troops supporting Presdient Laurent Kabila, after launching an attack on Sunday.
A rebel spokesperson said: “Our forces have been fighting inside the town since 11.00am and we are already in control of Kindu airport.” Kindu is 380km west of Goma, the rebel stronghold in eastern DRC and has an airstrip from which allied fighter-bombers can attack all rebel-held positions in the east.
The spokesperson said Kabila’s forces could no longer use the airbase as the rebels had set up air defence equipment around it. However a government spokesperson denied that the rebels were in Kindu, or anywhere near it.
So far there is no independent confirmation of the rebel attack.
The rebel military chief, Commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane has said that Kindu is a major objective not only because it is the forward base of Kabila’s troops, but because it is the major government strongpoint between the rebels and Lubumbashi, the capital of the mineral-rich province of Katanga and the DRC’s second city.
In Kindu, Kabila’s troops are reportedly reinforced by Sudanese troops, anti-government rebels from Uganda and Rwandan Hutu extremists in exile after the 1994 genocide in which they played a major role.
The rebels reported on Saturday that they had captured Ubundu and Kalima on their way Kindu. Bob Ngoy, a rebel army spokesman, said troops moving south from Kisangani captured Ubundu, 285km north of Kindu, and moving west, took Kalima, 80km east of the town.
Ngoy also said rebel forces were within 12km of Buta, a strategic junction 120km north of Kisangani on the main road in northern Congo that links Sudan and the Central African Republic.