At least four mortar shells pounded a northern working-class district of the Congo capital Brazzaville overnight causing heavy damage but no casualties, locals said on Tuesday.
The attack came just hours ahead of key talks between the ruling party, the opposition and civil society groups in the run-up to the July presidential elections, which President Denis Sassou Nguesso is expected to contest.
“At least two mortar shells exploded. They destroyed the wall of a plot of land which was inhabited but without injuring or killing anyone,” a pro-government source said.
“For the present we are not worrying about where the shells were fired from and who fired them,” the source added. “Nevertheless they took advantage of lighting on a night of heavy rain to carry out their task.”
A human rights activist said the attacks were intended to pressure the politicians to move ahead with the “republican dialogue” announced during a visit to Brazzaville in March by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The dialogue is due to review the institutional framework of the election, the electoral body and the financing of political parties. The holding of such a forum has long been demanded by the opposition, civil society and the clergy.
At the end of March the opposition expressed scepticism, saying the real aim of the dialogue was to legitimise the National Elections Organisation Committee, whose independence is questioned, before the presidential vote.
‘Isolated bandits’
A government source on Tuesday, however, said the attacks were in no way linked to the talks, and blaming the attacks on “isolated bandits.”
Brazzaville was the scene of heavy fighting between June and October 1997 between government forces and troops loyal to Sassou Nguesso, who ultimately seized power.
Sassou Nguesso was elected in 2007 but the polls were widely viewed as being marred by fraud. About 10 contestants are in the fray for the upcoming July election whose date has not yet been announced.
Sassou Nguesso is likely to stand, although he has made no official announcement so far.
Congo, a former French colony, suffered three coups after independence. It first witnessed wide-scale bloodshed after disputed parliamentary elections in 1993 sparked ethnically based fighting.
In 1997, ethnic and political tensions — and a scramble to control the country’s vast offshore oil wealth — snowballed into civil war with most northern officers backing Sassou Nguesso.
The rebels, mostly southerners and supporters of former president Pascal Lissouba and his prime minister, Bernard Kolelas, who had been deposed by Sassou Nguesso finally agreed to a truce in 1999.
However remnants of the civil war militias, known as Ninjas, are still active in the southern Pool region and many have resorted to banditry. — AFP