DRC “conspiracy” to restart war reported

Rebel leaders loyal to former prime minister Bernard Kolelas have secured the backing of the DRC military to restart the civil war in the Republic of Congo, the Associated Press (AP) reported late last week, citing diplomatic sources in the DRC capital Kinshasa. Kolelas had arrived in Kinshasa last Tuesday following a series of meetings between Ninja rebel leaders loyal to him and senior DRC military officers aimed at working out a plan to restart the war, AP stated. The participants reportedly agreed to set up training camps for Kolelas’ militiamen, and called for 2,000 militiamen to attack Brazzaville from Kinshasa at an unspecified date and another 2,000 to attack the commercial capital of Pointe-Noire, it said. A military aide of DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila, Colonel Eddy Kapend, denied the occurrence of any such meetings, AP added. Government officials in Brazzaville said Kabila knew that the RoC government was not supporting the rebel MLC which is battling his regime in northwestern DRC, but was “looking for an excuse to maintain the tension and suspicion between the two countries,” the report added. The two Congos signed a non-aggression pact in December 1998 but relations between them remain fraught.