Text:
http://www.nando.net/global/story/0,1024,1071-1921-15159-0,00.html
Source App: [The Nando Times: Global News - Netscape]
Republic of Congo capital calm after
weekend clashes
Copyright © 1998 Nando Media
Copyright © 1998 Associated Press
BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo (December 21, 1998 7:20 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - After weekend clashes between government forces and a rebel militia, order was restored Monday to the Republic of Congo's already-battered capital of Brazzaville.
Thousands of people fled from the city's southern outskirts to avoid fighting that left as many as 110 people dead. Although the hostilities tapered off by Sunday and the area remained quiet Monday, few people ventured home.
Electricity and fresh water supplies were cut off to the capital, which saw the forces of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso battling the outlawed "Ninja" militia of former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas.
Doctors and aid workers have also warned of health risks for the large number of people displaced from Brazzaville's south suburbs by the fighting.
The fighting is a reversal of the civil war which ravaged Brazzaville a year ago when Sassou-Nguesso, backed by his "Cobra" militia, took power from his predecessor Pascal Lissouba, a sometime ally of Kolelas.
Sassou-Nguesso, the Republic of Congo's longtime Marxist dictator now advocating capitalist reform, was ousted in the country's first multi-party elections in 1992.