IN THE space of a weekend, everything has changed - changed utterly. The country, since 1971 known as Zaire, is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The rebels, who on Saturday marched into the capital, Kinshasa, are no longer rebels but liberators. Their leader, Mr Laurent Kabila, is the new president and the reviled dictator of 32 years, Mr Mobutu Sese Seko, is in exile in Morocco or has sought refuge in his northern ancestral home of Gbadolite.
The inhabitants of Kinshasa were ecstatic ash thousands of guerrilla fighters yesterday advanced through the streets and consolidated their hold on the city. Wearing white headbands, the people lined the roadsides and danced in jubilation.
"We are liberated, we are liberated," they shouted. "Vive Kabila!"
The invading soldiers had by yesterday morning taken Camp Tshashi, the last stronghold of the defeated Zairean army, and were mopping up the last isolated pockets of resistance. Mr Mobutu's palatial residence had also fallen.
There was widespread looting in the opulent suburb around Mr Mobutu's residence but the mood was one of celebration rather than panic. Gunfire had again resounded around the city on Saturday night but by yesterday morning only occasional bursts of shooting could be heard as the new rulers fired in the air trying to control the more exuberant excesses of the populace.
"I'm tired but I'm happy," said one soldier carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher. "We've fought and we've come a long way."
The soldiers who yesterday crossed the city in the direction of Camp Tshashi had come down the Zaire River overnight by barge from the interior and to reinforce the advance units which had entered the capital on Saturday from the east. They are well armed with mortars, light machine guns, anti tank weapons and automatic Kalashnikov assault rifles.
When asked where he came from, one soldier said "Uganda" and another spoke in Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda.
"We're from this country, Rwanda and Uganda," said another, putting the lie to claims by Zaire's eastern neighbours that they have not been involved in the civil war.
In the seven months since they started their insurgency, the fight men moving. The younger ones are tired but we're not finished yet. We're still looking for our enemy. A lot of them have kept their guns and are in their homes wearing civilian clothes."
The truth is that the most sought after and high ranking government soldiers - men such as Mr Kongolu Mobutu, the ousted president's son - have fled across the Zaire River into neighbouring Congo.
Control of Camp Tshashi was secured with little difficulty though for some time a hard core of the DSP refused to surrender, arguing they were Zairean not Mobutuist troops and had a right to join an integrated national force.
Along the roadside near the military base the conquering soldiers lounged. Weary but evidently flushed with triumph, they enjoyed some small spoils of their victory. Most of them had entered Kinshasa with their weapons as their only possessions.
They were hungry and thirsty. Now they found themselves in the well to do Mont Ngaliema district, surrounded by more opulence they had probably ever seen. The abandoned villas had once belonged to government ministers and members of Mr Mobutu's entourage.
Teenage soldiers, some of them as young as 15, tinkered wonderingly with radios, cassette recorders and other electrical items they had been unable to resist despite the prohibition on looting. From one compound came the squeal of a pig: they had lit a fire in the front garden and were about to barbecue the slaughtered animal.
One group tried on uniforms belonging to the overthrown FAZ, discarding their own ragged fatigues. But the greatest prizes seemed to be the smart army boots they had found in Camp Tshashi. Civilians streamed down the hill from the military camp, bearing whatever they had been able to lay their hands on before Mr Kabila's troops had sealed it off.
In a government building, a crowd of chanting men ripped a portrait of Mr Mobutu from the wall and smashed it against a desk. As others ransacked the offices, an ADFL soldier wearing a black beret shouted at them to stop looting. He wielded a stick, lashing out at the men who ran past clutching their booty.
In another part of town, ADFL troops glutted themselves on bottles of wine and beer from the residence of the former prime minister, Mr Likulia Bolongo, who has been evacuated by France.
Already the new flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo has started to flutter about the capital. Its seven stars on a blue back ground have not been seen aloft since the years following independence from Belgium in 1960. Responding to a call by Mr Kabila, thousands of former government troops presented themselves yesterday at designated assembly points to turn over their weapons. A transitional Government of Public Salvation is to be established by tomorrow and a multiparty Constituent Assembly in two months' time. Elections are due to be held within two years.