Zimpapers Logo

KINSHASA.
Six people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday in what authorities said was a failed coup attempt on a residence of President Joseph Kabila in the capital Kinshasa.
“We have witnessed a coup attempt. A group of heavily armed people attacked a residence of the president. They were stopped at the first roadblock. Our soldiers fought with them, arrested some of them and six people were killed,” Information Minister Lambert Mende said.
Mende said the situation was under control and authorities were trying to identify the suspects. No further details on the casualties were immediately available. Separately, a presidential source said President Joseph Kabila was not in the residence when the attack happened but that he had now returned there and was safe.
Kabila came to power when his father was assassinated in 2001. He faces presidential and parliamentary elections in November this year, the second such polls since the official end of the 1998-2003 war. In a controversial January 15 move, parliament backed proposals by Kabila to reduce the presidential vote to a single round – scrapping the possibility of a run-off between the two leading candidates if neither has an absolute majority. – Reuters.