Nujoma due in Angola to discuss DRC withdrawals

Namibian President Sam Nujoma was expected in Angola on Thursday for talks with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following Namibia's withdrawal of troops from the DRC under the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement, AFP reported on Thursday. Like Namibia, Angola sent troops to support the Kinshasa government in August 1998 against rebel movements backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Dos Santos has said that Angolan troops would not leave the DRC until an agreement has been reached with the government in Kinshasa. One of the reasons Luanda sent soldiers was that the former Zaire, particularly under the long rule of the late Mobutu Sese Seko, backed UNITA rebels who have been fighting the Angolan government almost non-stop since independence in 1975.