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http://www.africanews.org/central/congo-kinshasa/stories/19990219_feat1.html
Kabila Loses Town
February 19, 1999
Kampala - Congolese rebels said yesterday Kabila and his allies were fleeing the northwestern town of Businga as rebel forces advanced from the north and east. The rebels said they were also closing in on embattled President Laurent Kabila's home town of Manono in Shaba Province.
Fierce fighting has raged on four fronts since Tuesday when the rebels launched their latest offensive. There was no independent confirmation of the rebels' claims. But a Kinshasa official said there could be serious bloodshed unless the war ends soon. Rebel leader Prof. Wamba dia Wamba, asked about the resignation of his Vice-President Prof.
Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma, said, "He can say anything as he likes. But I have not received any resignation from him." Ngoma yesterday told the BBC that Dia Wamba was not in-charge of the rebel movement but of a gang of robbers looting the country. Z'Ahidi Ngoma, speaking from Paris, described the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) as undemocratic and accused its leaders of being puppets of principal backers Rwanda and Uganda. "I quit the RCD because I totally disagree with their policies," he said. "I'm going to mobilise political forces to negotiate for peace because we don't need more war." Security sources said Kabila and the allied troops looted the deserted town devastated by four days of fighting as Jean-Pierre Bemba's Congolese Liberation Movement (CLM) rebels shelled it.
Last Tuesday Bemba claimed capture of Businga town which the government and the allies recaptured early this year. But independent sources said there was still a significant number of government and allied troops resisting the rebel entry into the town.
Dia Wamba said his troops would recapture Manono any time. The rebels vacated Manono two weeks after capture last October. amid heavy shelling from the allied troops. Dia Wamba said the rebels in the northwest were poised to attack and capture former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko's home town of Gbadolite.
"The war is proceeding well on all fronts. We shall soon control Gbadolite and Manono," Wamba said.
The rebels yesterday said intensive fighting continued on the battle-fronts in Opala and Okela, about 500 miles southwest of Kisangani, and at the government -held town of Kabinda, about 150 miles southeast of Mbuji Mayi, capital of the diamond-rich south Kasai Province. There was also fighting at the Mountain Malimba slope town of Pepa, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.