ZAIREAN rebels said yesterday they had seized a port in the southern mining region of Shaba and would soon capture the city of Kisangani, a key government stronghold on the Zaire river.
The French government, which backs the ailing President Mobutu, denounced what it called a "conspiracy of silence" over Zaire and called for urgent humanitarian intervention.
At the rebel headquarters in the eastern city of Goma, a rebel spokesman, Mr Raphael Ngenda, said clashes between rebel and government forces had begun around
"Kisangani. Rebel radio said fighters of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire were within 10 km of Kisangani, Zaire's third-largest city.
The radio said that on Sunday the rebels captured the port town of Moba on Lake Tanganyika.
France, which has championed foreign intervention in Zaire since the start of the conflict last October, once again pleaded for the world community to act.
"The humanitarian situation in Zaire is tragic. No-one can ignore it any longer. No-one can remain indifferent," the French government spokesman, Mr Alain Lamassoure, quoted President Chirac as saying.
"France appeals solemnly to the international community to take responsibility by exerting the necessary pressure to obtain a ceasefire and to implement urgently needed humanitarian intervention," Mr Chirac was quoted as telling a cabinet meeting.
Mr Lamassoure said the French government strongly supported proposals by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, for an international humanitarian intervention force. The plan has received little backing.
The Emergency Humanitarian Aid Minister, Mr Xavier EmmanuelIi, just back from Zaire, told the cabinet the refugee situation was very sombre" and proposed that France should launch its own mini airlift while waiting for wider international support.