Rebel Soldiers Making Gains on Congo Capital, Leader Says

A Congolese rebel commander said Tuesday that his 60,000 troops were closing in on the capital, Kinshasa, in a nationwide revolt to topple besieged President Laurent Kabila.

“Our strategy is that our friends are everywhere. It’s a war that concerns everyone,” commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane said in the eastern city of Goma. “We don’t want an atrocious war. We want to end this soon.”

Meanwhile, Kabila’s government boasted that it was retaking territory lost earlier to the rebels and had deployed new forces to the east and west of Kinshasa.

The rebellion erupted last week after Congo had announced that it was expelling Rwandan officers and soldiers who had trained and managed Kabila’s new army. The Rwandans also helped Kabila overthrow longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko last year.

The expulsion of the Rwandans spurred ethnic Tutsis, who had also joined Kabila in a fragile alliance against Mobutu, to revolt against their former ally in Congo. Kabila has accused Rwanda and Uganda of supplying tanks and troops to the Tutsi rebels, an accusation both countries have denied.

On Tuesday, Ondekane said rebel troops had cut an oil pipeline in western Congo that supplies Kinshasa. He also said the troops had advanced to the outskirts of the major Congo River port of Matadi, 173 miles southwest of the capital.

The reported advances came amid government claims that it was making inroads in both the far west and east.