REBELS fighting President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have claimed a further strategic gain in taking Lubefu in the central Kasai Oriental province. “Our forces have taken the town of Lubefu and Lodja airport (300 kilometres (180 miles) north of (the provincial capital) Mbuji Maya,” the rebels’ military chief Jean-Pierre Ondekane said late Sunday.Rebel forces were “now fighting in Lodja town which has not been totally liberated”, Ondekane told reporters at Kakuyu in neighbouring Katanga province late Sunday. Lufeba and Lodja are the axes for an offensive against Mbuji Mayi, the DRC’s diamond-mining centre town. A counter-offensive launched by Kabila’s Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) and allied troops “has been definitively stopped” by the rebel soldiers, Ondekane added.