MSNBC News Services

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan. 16 — South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said
Tuesday its mission in Kinshasa had reported an attempted coup under way in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but that the fate of President Laurent
Kabila remained uncertain.


“OUR REPORTS DO confirm an attempted coup. It is our understanding that the
military went on television to confirm the process of an attempted coup,”
said ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa.
He said the South Africans did not yet know whether Kabila was alive or
dead.

“We can’t confirm the reports that Kabila and his son were shot,” he said.

Other sources gave conflicting accounts of Kabila's fate.

A regional security official in Kigali, Rwanda, said he had spoken to
soldiers in the Congo who had confirmed to him that Kabila was shot and
killed in the bedroom of his palace.

“Three hours ago, some (government) soldiers burst into Kabila's bedroom and
shot him dead. I am talking to people who were part of the action. I am sure
that he is dead,” the source told Reuters by telephone from Kigali.

But another regional military source said Kabila had been shot and wounded
and was taken to a hospital where he was in an intensive care unit.

A government source in Zimbabwe also told Reuters that Kabila had been
wounded and not killed.

Witnesses said the gunfire broke out Tuesday afternoon around Kabila's home,
who has been fighting multiple rebel armies for more than two years.

Presidential aide Eddy Kapend went on national television shortly after the
shooting ended to appeal for calm, but he made no mention of the incident.
Kapend ordered all airports and borders closed, but gave no other details.
"I am asking the commander in charge to block the airport and to block our
border along the River Congo," Kapend said in the televised message.

The gunfire apparently lasted for less than an hour.

Following Kapend's broadcast, Kinshasa residents hurried home, and many
streets were quickly deserted. But no increased military presence could be
immediately seen in the capital city of the vast Central African nation.

Kabila's hilltop residence near downtown Kinshasa, known as the Marble
Palace, is usually heavily guarded by soldiers and a North Korean-made tank.

Kabila has been fighting a civil war since August 1998, when rebel forces
backed by Kabila's former allies, Rwanda and Uganda, turned against him. In
the war's early stages, the rebels reached the outskirts of Kinshasa before
being turned back by Kabila's army, which is now supported by Angola,
Namibia and Zimbabwe.


The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.



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