Kinshasa, Congo – The head of Congo’s army said in a nationally televised address Friday that security forces had regained control of the capital after two days of intense fighting against the militia of a former warlord who lost last year’s presidential runoff.
Lt. Gen. Sungilanga Kisempia said that order had been restored in Kinshasa and that Jean-Pierre Bemba’s army had fled, according to the broadcast on state-run RTNC television. He urged members of the militia to turn themselves in at the headquarters of the U.N. mission in Congo, saying that if they don’t, “We will pursue them to the very end.”
Bemba, who sought refuge inside the South African Embassy, accused the government of starting the violence and said that he had asked his men to stand down but that he no longer commands them. “I am not in control,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Hospital officials said at least 12 people were killed and as many as 47 wounded in two days of fighting between security forces and Bemba’s personal guard.
