Fighting still going on

Meanwhile, MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba confirmed to IRIN reports of fighting along the River Ubangi and in the Imese and Dongo areas. He said that on Sunday two battalions of government forces heavily bombarded Dongo, north of Imese. Earlier, AFP had quoted Bemba as saying he had repulsed the attack and taken 20 government troops prisoner. He told IRIN his forces had now captured some 270 people believed to have been fighting alongside Kabila’s troops in the most recent clashes. “They told us they do want to go back to the Kabila-camp because they did not know that they were going to be used to fight their own Congolese brothers, so they requested to join us,” he said. He added that his troops had captured people from Gemena, Lisala, Basankusu, Gbadolite and other places. Rebel-controlled radio from Goma on Saturday reported that “extensive” fighting was going on in the northwest near Libenge in Equateur Province. Regional sources told IRIN that Bemba had recently received arms supplies from Uganda and would probably soon launch an offensive on Mbandaka. The expected attack would actually have a “defensive aim”, they said, in that the ambition would be to neutralise the airstrip there, which has been used since last May to carry out bombing raids along the banks of the Ubangi. Two MiG fighters and one Antonov are reported to be based at that airstrip. The Paris-based ‘Indian Ocean Newsletter’ reported that on 15 August a meeting took place in Lubaga, near Kampala, between Ugandan and MLC officers to draw up a plan of action. It reported that the plan envisaged the deployment of three Ugandan infantry brigades in Equateur and the creation of a Joint Military Council of the two armies. UPDF sources say some 4,000 troops have already been transferred to Gbadolite.