Nujoma due in Luanda over DRC withdrawals

Namibian President Sam Nujoma was expected in Luanda on Thursday for talks with his Angolan counterpart, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, on Namibia’s withdrawal from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), reports said on Thursday. The Namibian government has in recent weeks been withdrawing its forces in line with a ceasefire deal. All the Namibian soldiers had been due to leave by the start of this month, but on 3 September, the defence ministry said the last batch had been delayed by logistics and would be home “within days”. It is estimated that Namibia deployed about 2,000 troops to the DRC. Dos Santos, however, has said that Angolan troops will not pull out of the DRC until an agreement has been reached with the Kinshasa government. The Angolan government has never disclosed how many soldiers it has in the DRC, with which it has a border, unlike the other countries which sent troops.