Laurent-Désiré Kabila

The men who lead Laurent-Désiré Kabila's government were mostly in exile until he seized power in 1997 and owe their status to presidential favour rather than local power-base...

His discussions with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and South African President Thabo Mbeki messages on debt to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and entertaining of such personages as Congo-Kinshasa's Laurent-Désiré Kabila fill local media (slipping back into bad old habits under pressure from a presidency which believes state television is for state spokespeople)...

President Laurent-Désiré Kabila insists he didn't give an inch...

Last month President Sam Nujoma backed Luanda's onslaught on 'UNITA bandits' straight after a summit at State House Windhoek with Angolan Defence Minister Kundi Paihama Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Congo-Kinshasa's President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...

Two years of Laurent Kabila have proved them wrong...

The idea Congolese sources say but US sources won't confirm is to bring several senior Congolese politicians including President Laurent-Désiré Kabila to agree on an implementation programme and supporting mechanisms for the Lusaka peace accord...

Aside from the tragic situation in Angola these mini-crises pale into insignificance beside the war in Congo-Kinshasa where SADC states are deeply polarised: Angola Namibia and Zimbabwe back President Laurent-Désiré Kabila; South Africa Botswana and Mozambique are ostensible neutrals but accused of helping the Congolese rebel alliance with Rwanda and Uganda...

At home an anti-corruption drive is running alongside fresh allegations of complicity in the genocide against some senior officials; in the region peace prospects in Congo-Kinshasa are bleaker with President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's government making no apparent effort to comply with the Lusaka agreements on handing over genocide suspects...

Rautenbach's Ridgepointe company has also taken over some of Congo's richest mineral assets in an opaque deal negotiated with President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's Minister of State Pierre-Victor Mpoyo...

Congo's Lusaka accord means little until President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's government talks to and negotiates seriously with the three main rebel groups...