South Africans flee DRC
2004-06-04 22:06
Erika Gibson
Kinshasa - Scores of South Africans worried about the increasing unrest in Kinshasa and in the rest of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday fled by ferry to Brazzaville in the Congo where they were expected to get a flight home.
According to sources in the city, the airport road had been closed off after vehicles were stoned or set alight in the past two days.
Bodies still lay in the road on Friday after at least three people died in the unrest.
Two people were shot dead while trying to loot the army base where South African peacekeeping soldiers are based.
Kinshasa was relatively calm on Friday, but Congolese police kept a beady eye on the situation. Beeld was told that troublemakers were quickly removed from the city.
But, sporadic gunfire was heard on the outskirts of the city.
Many South Africans, who worked in Kinshasa, were unable to get their families to the airport on Thursday in time to catch an SAA flight.
Congolese forces clashed with rebels
The only way out for them was to Brazzaville by boat, but even the ferry service was sporadic.
A spokesperson for Vodacom said that contingency plans were in place in case the situation in DRC got worse.
Tensions have been rising in the country in the past few weeks since Congolese forces clashed with a splinter rebel group in Bukavu in the east.
The town fell into rebel hands while United Nations soldiers, ordered not to interfere with the rebels and government troops, had to stand by and watch.
The UN was blamed, in turn, for not stepping in and its offices in various towns, including its headquarters in Kinshasa, were attacked.
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- Beeld