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Loses rise in Congo

    JOHANNESBURG

    Zimbabwe has allegedly lost 164 men and US $202 million of military equipment since beginning military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the weekly ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday.

    The report added that 434 Zimbabweans have been injured in the fighting.

    Defence Minister Moven Mahachi, interviewed in the ‘Financial Gazette’, refused to confirm the figures, which the independent paper says Zimbabwe has sustained since it began sending troops to back President Laurent-Desire Kabila in August 1998.

    “Yes we have lost equipment in the war but I haven’t quantified it. Publicity about our losses will not benefit Zimbabwe but enhance those who are fighting against us,” Mahachi told the paper. Mahachi said he would confirm the figures at the end of the war.

    Official government figures put the cost of military operations in the DRC at three million dollars per month. Those figures were called into question last month when the British ‘Financial Times’ alleged Harare was spending eight times more than it was declaring.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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