Airport blast inquiry to consider sabotage

Government Information Minister Didier Mumengi said on Sunday the DRC could not rule out sabotage or rebel involvement in Friday's string of explosions at N'Djili Airport, Kinshasa, which have claimed more than 100 lives and left over 200 injured according to media reports. "We are in a state of war... When an incident like this happens, we have the duty to examine every possibility, and that's what we're doing," Mumengi told
Radio France Internationale. The JMC in Lusaka had received no official report on the Kinshasa airport blasts, or allegations from the DRC that they were linked to the rebels, Brig-Gen Kazembe said on Monday.

Mumengi said the Kinshasa airport explosions were set off when a warehouse fire in the military section of the airport reached a cargo of ammunition. Explanations for the initial blast ranged from an electrical short circuit to the mishandling of a load of explosives. A customs hangar, munitions store and four planes, including a commercial Boeing 707 and at least two military aircraft, were destroyed in the incident, according to media
reports. The Ministry of Health and international NGOs cooperated on responding to the emergency, humanitarian sources said, but Kinshasa General Hospital was almost overwhelmed by the number of dead and injured. The explosions set off a panic among the armed forces in Kinshasa, with rumours of a coup rife and President Laurent-Desire Kabila's office immediately sealed off, independent sources reported. International flights to and from Kinshasa were cancelled over the weekend, with N'Djili
sealed off by army and police.