DRC: More than 100 killed in two days of fighting in Kinshasa

More than 100 people were killed in two days of heavy fighting in Congo's capital Kinshasa, hospital officials said on Sunday, as diplomats expressed fears for the country's fledgling democracy. Government forces restored order to Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling riverside capital late on Friday after routing fighters loyal to defeated presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, who fled to safety in the South African embassy. Hospital morgues were overflowing with dead bodies and doctors struggled to cope with a stream of wounded arriving for treatment after heavy machine gun fire and mortar explosions rocked the central African state's capital for two days. Around 20 names, including soldiers and civilians, were posted outside the morgue of the another hospital in Kinshasa. It was the first violence in the capital since a presidential run-off in October which Bemba lost to President Joseph Kabila. The polls were supposed to turn the page on a 1998-2003 war which killed nearly 4 million people, mainly from hunger and disease, but have left a legacy of bitterness after Bemba alleged fraud. Doctors at the Mama Yemo hospital said international agencies had yet to provide the medical supplies they needed. Along Kinshasa's main boulevard, which saw some of the worst fighting, UN peacekeepers began marking off unexploded munitions to prevent further injuries. Analysts and diplomats expressed concern. Bordering nine other nations, Congo is seen as a potential democratic lynchpin for war-ravaged central Africa. Congo's general prosecutor issued an arrest warrant on Friday accusing Bemba, the leader of the parliamentary opposition after he was elected as senator earlier this year, of high treason for starting this week's violence. South African officials said Bemba's presence in the embassy was temporary and he had not asked for asylum. Bemba is overwhelmingly popular in Kinshasa and the country's lingala-speaking west. The president draws most of his support from the distant, Swahili-speaking east. Many members of Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo are in hiding.

ITN Source | March 26, 2007

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