The confusion over the fate of President Laurent Kabila continues as the Democratic Republic of Congo ambassador to Zimbabwe said tonight that Mr Kabila was alive but in critical condition after being shot yesterday and being flown to Zimbabwe for treatment.
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President Kabila
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Ambassador Kikaya bien Karubi said Mr Kabila had been transfered to Zimbabwe from a clinic in Kinshasa for medical treatment.
"As we speak there is a team of Congolese doctors who are attending to him. Obviously he is in a very critical condition but he has not passed away yet", he said in remarks broadcast live on Zimbabwe state television.
His remarks contradicted an earlier statement by the Zimbabwean Defence Minister Moven Mahachi who was quoted by the state news agency Ziana as saying that Mr Kabila had died.
Zimbabwe is Mr Kabila's biggest ally in a war he has been waging since 1998 against rebels backed by his former friends Rwanda and Uganda.
Mr Mahachi had said earlier Kabila had been assassinated but Zimbabwean forces would continue to support the Congolese government against the rebels.
Congolese state radio said reports of Mr Kabila's death were untrue. Congo's information minister said the president had been flown abroad for medical treatment and his son Joseph would take charge of the government.
"President Kabila has died. It was a pure assassination", Mr Mahachi, whose country has been the Kinshasa government's main ally during nearly four years of war, told state news agency Ziana.
Ziana quoted other senior government sources as saying Mr Kabila died on a plane carrying him to Zimbabwe for emergency medical treatment.
Ziana said Mr Kabila was shot five times by an aide, who was subsequently killed by other aides in the room.
Mr Mahachi's statement built on an earlier report by security sources in Zambia who said Mr Kabila's body was now in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Meanwhile the United States has warned countries with forces in DR Congo not to exploit the reported death of President Laurent Kabila to expand their positions.
"It is essential that the foreign forces who occupied large parts of the Congo halt their offensive action," Mr Richard Holbrooke, US ambassador to the United Nations, said.
"They should not seek to take advantage of the events in Kinshasa to expand their presence," he added.
Mr Holbrooke told a public gathering of African ambassadors to the UN that he had no inside information enabling him to confirm or deny reports that Mr Kabila had been shot dead by a bodyguard.
"I know nothing beyond what is available to you publicly," he said.
Reuters/AFP