Quelling Attacks in the Capital, Congolese Troops Kill Dozens
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Version 0 of 1. KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Congolese troops on Monday killed dozens of youths who attacked the airport, a military barracks and the state radio and television headquarters here in the capital, in what appeared to be a failed assault by followers of a disgruntled religious leader. The attackers seized the broadcast headquarters and, before transmission was shut down, shouted slogans in support of Paul Joseph Mukungubila, a Christian leader, and against President Joseph Kabila. Afterward, several corpses lay outside the gates of the state broadcast center. The broadcaster said that security forces had killed 46 of the attackers. Government officials said about 20 more had been arrested. Shortly after the clashes, soldiers in the eastern mining province of Katanga attacked a church run by Mr. Mukungubila, a self-proclaimed prophet. He has railed against Mr. Kabila’s decision to make peace with Tutsi rebels in eastern Congo, saying that the president is under the influence of Rwanda. Witnesses said the fighting in the provincial capital, Lubumbashi, had quickly subsided. Security forces were said to have found weapons and ammunition in the church. “We have total control of the situation,” said a government spokesman, Lambert Mende, adding that there had been no civilian or military casualties. Government officials said that the Kinshasa assault had been conducted by untrained youths in civilian clothes with aging military equipment and that it appeared to be more a political statement than an attempt to seize power in this riverside city of more than nine million. Some analysts in Kinshasa said the attacks could be linked to Mr. Kabila’s recent decision to replace the national police chief, Gen. John Numbi, a powerful political figure from Katanga, with Gen. Charles Bisengimana, an ethnic Tutsi. Congo is struggling to emerge from decades of violence and instability, particularly in its east, where millions of people have died, mostly from hunger and disease. A 21,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission is stationed in the country. The gunmen seized the headquarters of state radio and television just before 8 a.m., and briefly took several journalists hostage. Witnesses reported shooting at the Tshatshi military camp, the nation’s military headquarters, near the Defense Ministry, and at the international airport. A United Nations staff member was wounded in the shooting at the airport but was in stable condition, a United Nations spokesman said. Some flights were diverted to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, on the other side of the Congo River. |