Congo President assassinated by own bodyguard

Congo President assassinated by own bodyguard
REUTERS

KINSHASA, JAN 17: President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was shot dead by one of his bodyguards on Tuesday. His death has been confirmed by Zimbabwean Defence Minister

``The circumstances are too confused to know more,'' Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koen Vervaeke told newsmen.

A source close to Kabila's presidency earlier said the President had been shot and wounded by one of his bodyguards.

``The President took two bullets, one in the back, another in the leg. He's seriously wounded and was taken to hospital by helicopter,'' the source said.

Kabila's four years in power have been marked by little but conflict in the vast country at the heart of Africa, where he ousted veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko with the help of Ugandan and Rwandan friends who afterward became his bitterest foes.

Earlier a senior intelligence source in Uganda, which alongwith Rwanda supports Congolese rebels who have been fighting Kabila since August 1998 for control of the mineral-rich country, said the President had been killed in a coup attempt.

``He has died. He was shot by unknown people...earlier today...I am 101 percent sure he is dead,'' the senior intelligence source in Kampala said saying that his information came from intelligence sources in Kinshasa.

But Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji, a long time ally ofKabila, went on state television in the evening to say that Kabila himself had ordered a general state of alert in the capital, where an overnight curfew would be enforced.

Kabila's personal Chief of staff, Colonel Edy Kapend, read amessage on state television saying the airport and river border had been closed and appealing directly to senior commanders to fire no shots without prior order.

Residents said that there were no signs of panic inKinshasa, which appeared calm even before the curfew took effect at 8 P.M. (1900 GMT).

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel was quoted by theBelga news agency as saying news of Kabila's death had been confirmed by two reliable sources.

He said Kabila was apparently shot by one of his bodyguardsin the presence of Army generals whom he had dismissed.

Kabila sprang from obscurity in 1996 at the head of arebellion with Rwandan and Ugandan backing that fought its way across Africa's third largest country in barely eight months to end more than three decades of Mobutu's rule.

Congo is rich in diamonds and gold, as well as copper andcobalt, but impoverished by years of misrule and corruption.

Kabila later fell out with Uganda and Rwanda, who now backrebels controlling most of the North and East of the country. Fighting alongside Kabila's forces, in what has become a regional war, are Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.

Attempts to end the war have been shredded by renewedfighting, and no end is in sight 18 months after a peace accord was signed in the Zambian capital Lusaka.

Up to two million people have been displaced by the fightingand a quarter of a million have fled to neighbouring countries as refugees.

Herman Hannekom of the Africa Institute in South Africa'scapital Pretoria said Kabila had lost the support of many in his country through his consistent failure to pursue a peace deal.

``Morale in the Congolese Army was apparently very low. That triggers resistance and war fatigue. I think Kabila was the major obstacle to peace-making,'' he said.