Accra — The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have finally announced that President Laurent Désiré Kabila is dead. The long-awaited official declaration was broadcast on Thursday evening on state television in the capital, Kinshasa.
The Information Minister, Dominique Sakombi, a former propaganda and image supremo in the heyday of the late President Mobutu Sese Seko - read the statement.
Kabila, once a self-styled Marxist guerrilla fighter who reinvented himself as a businessman and then rebel leader, died after being shot by one of his personal guards on Tuesday - reportedly after a row with some of his army generals about the rebellion in the DRC.
The confirmation from Kinshasa came forty-eight hours after Kabilas assassination was first stated as a fact by the foreign ministry in Belgium, the former colonial power in Congo.
The first formal acknowledgement by a Congolese official came earlier Wednesday, when a Congolese diplomat in London told the BBC that "Laurent Kabila died yesterday" at 5pm in Harare (Zimbabwe)." The diplomat and charge daffaires at Congos mission in Britain, Henry Ntswana, said he had been instructed to make the statement.
Before that, Kinshasa was insisting that Kabila had been shot and badly wounded, but not killed, and was receiving emergency treatment in Zimbabwe.
The Defence Ministry in Harare confirmed his death on Wednesday, but swiftly retreated from the statement since its ally, Congo, was insistently denying it. Sources say the delay in Kinshasa was to allow the government to put security arrangements in place, "to avoid a collapse into anarchy."
Zimbabwe, Angola, and to a lesser extent, Namibia, all sent military support to Kabila to help him fight a rebellion - backed by his erstwhile allies, Uganda and Rwanda - which began in 1998 and continues.
Kabilas son, Joseph - a 31 year old army major-general who fought alongside Kabila during the fight against Mobutu - has now stepped out of his fathers shadow and into the hotseat as the "caretaker" leader of Congo.
The promotion is a poisoned chalice for Joseph Kabila. He faces the unenviable task of running a much-weakened government in Kinshasa and the military command, keeping ambitious and ruthless politicians and soldiers, and trying to keep a fractious army intact.
Three generals were arrested last week and there are reports of increasing discontent within the army. It has faced recent setbacks and rebel victories in a country which is now virtually divided in half, with the rebels and their allies controlling great swathes of the country. Commentators note that in recent months Kabilas hold over the army had grown tenuous and some sections had reportedly threatened to mutiny over pay.
The younger Kabila was born during his fathers long exile in East Africa to a Tutsi mother. He is said to be more proficient in English and Swahili than he is in either French or Lingala. State television news dedicated most of its programming to General Joseph Kabila, who was seen in uniform greeting members of the government and diplomats. He has no political experience and has not spoken publicly since he was placed at the head of the troubled nation.
In Kinshasa, where the local population was the last in the world to get official confirmation of Kabilas assassination on Thursday, many markets stayed closed and parents kept their children away from school, after a national holiday on Wednesday. This was to mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Congos first post-independence prime minister and symbolic leader, Patrice Lumumba. Reports from the capital said business and shops opened late on Thursday, with the city on edge, waiting for news.
But earlier in the day there was no doubt about the fate of Kabila among continental leaders meeting in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde, at the Franco-African summit. The African presidents observed a minutes silence as a mark of respect. The Togolese leader, Gnassingbe Eyadema, invited them to stand for the symbolic gesture at the opening ceremony "in memory of our dear brother, Laurent Kabila." President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe left the meeting early to return home.
Sources at the Information Ministry in Kinshasa say the body of the late Congolese leader is to be brought back to Kinshasa on Sunday, ahead of the funeral planned for Tuesday. It is not clear whether this will be in the capital or in Lubumbashi, regional capital of Kabilas native Katanga Province in the south.
Congo, a vast and potentially wealthy mineral-rich nation is bordered by nine other countries, and has been in constant turmoil since 1996, when Kabila - propped up by neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda - led the rebellion in Congo that ousted Mobutu barely eight months later.
Propelled to power in what many Congolese and foreigners considered a proxy war, Kabilas arrival intensified the instability in Congo which has continued to radiate into the wider region and to affect most of its neighbours.
The promise of peace, stability and democracy under Kabila was shortlived. His backers, Uganda and Rwanda found him increasingly unbiddable and soon grew tired of the man they thought they had groomed well. In a populist and popular nationalistic move, Kabila turned on them, saying they were trying to take over Congo and threw out their soldiers and military advisors.
Uganda and Rwanda promptly began backing Kabilas rebel adversaries in the east, while in Kinshasa he amassed power and surrounded himself with relatives, cronies and sycophants in government.
Officials in both Rwanda and Uganda, who accused Kabila of allowing rebels from their countries to operate in his, have denied that they were involved in the assassination. So too have the anti-Kabila rebels. Kigali said Rwanda had no interest in carrying out political assassinations and would not take any advantage of the void in the DRC. Uganda said much the same. The rebels say assassination is not their style.
Angola has also rejected any suggestion that it was responsible for the death of Kabila. Luanda has increasingly become a strategic power broker in the Great Lakes region and in Congo-Kinshasa. Luanda - with its battle-hardened troops - was instrumental in rescuing Kabila when he was desperately trying and failing to ward off the rebellion and his foes were within striking distance of Kinshasa.
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Analysts predict that Angolas role will be crucial in deciding the future of Congo - and who will rule, lead or democratically govern. It is also essential for Luanda that it backs the winning horse to ensure its own security.
Mobutu allowed the Angolan rebel UNITA army of Jonas Savimbi to operate freely from his territory. Angola's decision to back Kabila cut off that lifeline for Jonas Savimbi's forces. The MPLA government will want to be sure that the status quo continues and that UNITA does not regain its foothold across the border in the DRC.
Peace efforts in Congo-Kinshasa have made little headway and an accord, signed in Lusaka, Zambia in 1999, has not been implemented. The United Nations was supposed to send a peace-keeping force to the DRC, but there has been no peace to keep, and foreign armies have not honoured their pledge to pull out of Congo. The UN Security Council has urged all sides to respect a ceasefire and cease all military action.
In the wake of Kabila's death, most of the rebels and elements of the civilian opposition in the DRC - including Etienne Tshisekedi, a former prime minister and long-time adversary of Mobutu who was sent into internal exile by Kabila - have called for peaceful dialogue since Kabila was killed.
There are conflicting expressions, in and outside the DRC - of hope that the death of Kabila will open genuine peace talks among all Congolese whether civilian, rebel or government - and fear that his demise will plunge the country into more conflict and chaos.
