THE Angolan army is to keep its troops in the Congo Republic to help maintain stability in the region, its commander in the Central African nation said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday. General Sanjar Nelumba told the Congolese weekly, Le Pays, a withdrawal would allow the Angolan rebel group Unita to slip back into the Congo Republic to set up rear bases and undermine the Brazzaville government’s fight against Congolese rebels. “If the Angolan armed forces left the Congo today, it would leave Unita and the [exiled Congolese opposition] Erddun a free hand, against the well-understood interests of the region,” he said. Angola helped former military ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso defeat President Pascal Lissouba and his supporters in a brief 1997 civil war. Angolan forces are fighting Lissouba loyalists.