President Laurent Kabila's government announced air strikes on the western battle front yesterday as more foreign nationals joined an exodus from the Democratic Republic of the Congo's capital, Kinshasa.
The Information Minister, Mr Didier Mumengi, told state television that government forces had bombed Kitona, the Rwandan-backed rebels' rear base at the end of the Congo River corridor linking Kinshasa to the sea.
"Today the town of Kitona was bombed, our parachutists are descending on Kitona," he said, adding that the planes were Congolese and not Angolan.
Late last night the pounding of heavy guns could be heard south-west of Kinshasa.
The second major power cut in less than a week also compounded the problems of the capital's five million residents, cutting off water and petrol pumps in many places.
Mr Kabila, who left Kinshasa early on Monday amid speculation that he was seeking military help from Angola and other friends in the region, was in the southern city of Lubumbashi, his Agriculture Minister, Mr Mawam panga Mwana Nanga, said.
Mr Kabila had met the Angolan President, Mr Jose Eduardo dos Santosm, in Luanda on Sunday. Diplomats and some officials in Zimbabwe said he had sought Angolan air support, Zimbabwean troops and Namibian logistical support.
Meanwhile, defence ministers from Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia ended talks in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, yesterday. "We are going to respond positively in a manner which will help the government of President Kabila to restore peace and stability," President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said afterwards.
Mr Kabila's son, Joseph, his deputy army chief-of-staff, represented him at the meeting.
Hundreds of Westerners have fled Kinshasa and the United States has temporarily closed its embassy.
Former colonial power Belgium flew 120 people out yesterday on its fifth evacuation flight. "There are still 70 people in Kinshasa who want to leave so we are going to try to get the authorisation for a sixth round trip," a Belgian foreign ministry official said.
Diplomats said that a ferry shuttled three times across the Congo River yesterday to Brazzaville, capital of the Congo Republic. France, which organised the shuttle, has at least 500 troops and military transport planes there.
Russia said that it was sending a plane to fly out its embassy staff, including the ambassador.
A Reuters correspondent who returned to Kinshasa yesterday from near the battle zone reported seeing a column of about 20 trucks full of troops and six tanks heading for Mbanza Ngungu some 120 km south-west of the capital.
Rebel commanders reported that their advance units were approaching Mbanza Ngungu, a garrison town.
Mr Kabila accused former allies Rwanda and Uganda, who helped him oust veteran dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997, of fighting alongside ethnic Tutsi and other rebels who took up arms in the east on August 2nd.
His government conceded that the rebels held the giant Inga dam, accusing them of cutting power to the city. A 20-hour power cut paralysed Kinshasa and Brazzaville on Thursday and Friday. Inga also feeds Brazzaville, which had no power again.
The latest Kinshasa power cut, which began around noon on Monday, hit fuel and water supplies but the city was calm. The rebels, who had earlier said they would shut down the power as they entered Kinshasa, blamed the cut on a technical fault.
Meanwhile, a rebel leader claimed in Goma last night that Mr Kabila had fled Kinshasa. Mr Kabila left with some of his ministers after stealing money from the country's central bank, said Mr Bizima Karaha, Mr Kabila's former foreign minister who has defected to the rebels.
In Kampala, a state-owned Ugandan newspaper said yesterday Congolese rebels found the bodies of 150 ethnic Tutsi troops massacred by retreating government forces. The bodies were found in Bunia, close to the Ugandan border, shortly after rebels captured the town last Wednesday, the New Vision said, quoting witnesses. It claimed they had been buried in a mass ceremony.