OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Lumbumbashi | Sunday 7.00pm.
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo for a one-day summit on Sunday in the wake of failed peace talks in the Zambian capital Lusaka last week.
The summit, to be held in Lumbumbashi, is expected to be attended by leaders of three Southern African Development Community countries — Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola — who have deployed troops to assist DRC President Laurent Kabila fight a three-month rebellion led by minority Congolese Tutsis.
Sources said that the one-day summit was called by Nujoma to review plans for an offensive against rebel positions in the east of the DRC. South African President Nelson Mandela, who is trying to broker a peace in the DRC, visited Windhoek for talks with Nujoma on Wednesday last week.
Mandela said after the meeting that he and Nujoma were committed to a standstill of troops in the DRC and the eventual withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. Nujoma, however, was party to a summit in Harare nearly two weeks ago after which Mugabe announced that Kabila and his southern African allies planned to take the war to the rebels in the east of the country.
Meanwhile, Kabila on Saturday met United States under-secretary of state for African affairs, Susan Rice, to discuss the ongoing conflict in the DRC. “Rice wanted to find out about the progress of the war in the DRC. The president gave a detailed and clear explanation of the current state of the war which is plaguing the country,” said DRC Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo, who attended the meeting.