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Congo government fights second coup attempt

Loyalist policemen patrol a street after a coup attempt in Kinshasa, Congo, Friday. The coup attempt was the second security-force uprising against the transition government led by Joseph Kabila. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Robyn Dixon Los Angeles Times
Loyalist policemen patrol a street after a coup attempt in Kinshasa, Congo, Friday. The coup attempt was the second security-force uprising against the transition government led by Joseph Kabila. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, appeared on television Friday to declare that he was safe and that renegade members of his presidential guard had been vanquished in a coup attempt, the second against his transitional government this year.

The leader of Friday’s coup attempt, Maj. Eric Lenge, and about a dozen supporters fled south from the capital, Kinshasa, pursued by government forces, Congolese officials said.

The coup attempt was the third major crisis in Congo this year. Earlier this month, rebel officers took control of the eastern town of Bukavu before retreating. The other uprising took place in March, when soldiers attacked military installations in Kinshasa.

Friday’s uprising began about 2 a.m. when rebels took over the state radio station and announced that Kabila’s government had been “neutralized.” Later, Kinshasa’s power was shut down, plunging the capital into a state of fear and uncertainty. Explosions and heavy arms fire echoed through the city early Friday, even after the government announced that the coup attempt had collapsed.

The president’s spokesman, Kudura Kasongo, speaking late Friday by mobile phone from Kinshasa, described the city as quiet and stable. He said 21 coup plotters had been captured, and 12 were on the run.

“The situation is under control,” he said. “Now the situation is very quiet in the town and around the town.”

He said that the coup attempt would have no effect on the transitional government and that Kabila would lead the country to elections next year.

In his television address, Kabila, 32, who was wearing a military uniform, urged his nation to remain calm. “I will allow nobody to try a coup d’etat or to throw the peace` process off course,” he said. “As for me, I’m fine.”

Lenge had been a trusted figure close to Kabila.

Congo, which has about 53 million people, is rich in resources but is emerging from one of Africa’s most debilitating wars. The civil war left about 3 million people dead in five years from the fighting and related famine.

The country’s resource wealth has often been its curse. In the late 19th century, King Leopold II of Belgium seized Congo as a colony, plundering its rubber. More recently, warring forces have struggled for control over the country’s vast mineral wealth, including gold, diamonds and zinc.

In 2002, Kabila signed a peace accord with several armed rebel groups aimed at ending the civil war. Democratic elections are planned for next year.